U.S. Supreme Court justices on Monday sidestepped another opportunity to determine if LGBTQ rights trump the Constitution’s protection of the exercise of religion.
Nevertheless, they ruled in favor of the owners of an Oregon bakery, Sweetcakes by Melissa, who declined to make a cake for a same-sex wedding. The ruling vacated a state court decision against Aaron and Melissa Klein, eliminating a $135,000 fine. And it directed state appellate judges to reconsider the case in light of the Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of Colorado baker Jack Phillips.
In its previous term, the Supreme Court ruled for Phillips on the narrow grounds that the state exhibited hostility to his Christian faith when it punished him for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
In another related case, the Washington state Supreme Court ruled June 6 that state courts did not act with animosity toward religion when they ruled that florist Baronnelle Stutzman broke the state’s anti-discrimination laws by refusing on grounds of her Christian faith to provide flowers for the wedding of a gay couple.
The hostility in Oregon against the Kleins’ faith was obvious to many observers.
Then-Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian “made numerous public comments on social media and in media interviews revealing his intent was to rule against them,” said Samaritan’s Purse CEO Franklin Graham.
“He stated that the Kleins had ‘disobey[ed]’ Oregon law and needed to be ‘rehabilitate[d].’”
On Facebook, Graham wrote: “This is unbelievable! … Brad Avakian, Oregon’s Bureau of Labor & Industries Commissioner, upheld [the previous] ruling that the Kleins have to pay the lesbian couple $135,000 for a long list of alleged damages including: ‘acute loss of confidence,’ ‘high blood pressure,’ ‘impaired digestion,’ ‘loss of appetite,’ ‘migraine headaches,’ ‘pale and sick at home after work,’ ‘resumption of smoking habit,’ ‘weight gain,’ and ‘worry.’ Give me a break. In my opinion, this couple should pay the Kleins $135,000 for all they’ve been through!”