Aziz Huq on Why the Masterpiece Cakeshop Case Is So Complicated
Commentary: Here’s Why the Masterpiece Cakeshop Case Is So Complicated
The case of the gay couple vs. the devout baker seems tailored for our fractious times. But when the Supreme Court hears arguments for it on Tuesday, it’s not the culture war, but ordinary commercial regulation that may feel the consequences.
In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the Court will determine whether a baker can decline to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding, despite Colorado’s law against discrimination based on sexual orientation.
The baker, Jack Phillips, has two arguments: that the Free Exercise Clause allows “believers” a “freedom to live out their religious identity in the public square” and that Colorado is forcing him to “create art” he finds morally repugnant. Just as the state cannot force children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, or its drivers to display its motto, so it cannot command Phillips to ventriloquize a message of tolerance he repudiates.
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