Supreme Court asked to take up appeal over same-sex wedding cake News
Supreme Court asked to take up appeal over same-sex wedding cake

Melissa and Aaron Klein, the former owners of an Oregon bakery asked the US Supreme Court Tuesday whether the state of Oregon violated the couple’s First Amendment rights by compelling them to make a custom wedding cake to for a same-sex wedding, which they claim is against “their sincerely held religious beliefs.”

The petition for writ of certiorari claims that the state drove the Kliens out of business when they imposed a $135,000 penalty on the couple when they refused to make a custom cake for a same-sex couple. The couple states that the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries did not accept the Kleins’ argument that they had a First Amendment right of free speech and religion to refuse to make a cake in light of their religious beliefs. The Oregon Court of Appeals subsequently affirmed that decision and the Oregon Supreme Court denied the couple’s appeal.

Commentators have noted that this will give the Supreme Court an opportunity to address issues it did not in its Masterpiece Cakeshop decision, a similar case in which a cake shop owner refused to to bake a cake for a same-sex couple. Many have stated that the opinion in Masterpiece Cakeshop was very narrow and did not address when such “sincerely held political beliefs” can trump more neutral, broadly applied laws such as anti-discrimination provisions.