Gay Marriage: CO Wedding Cake Bakery Gets DOJ help

LAKEWOOD, CO -- A Colorado baker who refused to bake a cake for a gay couple for religious reasons got some help from the U.S. Dept. of Justice Thursday, as the United States Supreme Court prepares to hear the case. Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, was cited for violating the state's anti-discrimination law in 2012. The justices will hear Phillips' appeal this fall.

This will be the high court's most significant same-sex marriage case since in two years since they ruled that states must recognize same-sex marriage.

The case started in 2012 when Phillips said he would not make a cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins.
The couple sued, and both the Civil Rights Commission and the state's Court of Appeals ruled in their favor.

The Justice Dept. brief says Phillips was not violating Colorado's public accommodations law by refusing to see his product to the couple in a discriminatory way, as would be the case if he refused to sell a product that was "off the shelf." The brief asserts that Phillips is exercising his free speech by creating wedding cakes, but "[b]y producing a custom wedding cake for that ritual, Phillips participates in the wedding celebration in a meaningful way."

Phillips is no longer making wedding cakes for anyone, according to the Masterpiece Cakeshop website, costing him 40 percent of his business.

"It's not just same-sex weddings I don't make cakes for," Phillips said in a video. "I also don't make bachelor party cakes or Halloween cakes with witchcraft or demons." An online fundraising site with a goal of $200,000 has raised $46,000 for Phillip's court fees.