DENVER – Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission has ordered a Christian baker to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, finding his religious objections to the practice did not trump the state’s anti-discrimination statutes.
The unanimous ruling from the seven-member commission upheld an administrative law judge’s finding in December that Jack Phillips violated civil rights law when he refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple in 2012. The couple sued.
Phillips, a devout Christian who owns the Masterpiece Cakeshop in the Denver suburb of Lakewood, said the decision violates his First Amendment rights to free speech and free exercise of his religion. After the ruling, he told reporters “I will stand by my convictions until somebody shuts me down.”
He added that his bakery has been so overwhelmed by supporters eager to buy cookies and brownies that he does not currently make wedding cakes.