HV Congressman Stands Against DOJ In SCOTUS Gay Wedding-Cake Case

COLD SPRING, NY — Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-NY) announced Wednesday the filing of an amicus brief in the controversial wedding-cake case now before the Supreme Court. Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission has to do with a baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

The U.S. Justice Department has intervened on behalf of the baker, saying his freedom to refuse to serve gay people is a religious right.

The amicus brief filed by Maloney and Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wi) argues in support for equal rights for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community and other marginalized groups. A ruling for Masterpiece Cakeshop could create a “license to discriminate” allowing businesses to deny service to Americans, including LGBTQ people, said Maloney.

He and Baldwin were joined on the brief by 35 Senators and 174 House members.

“We wouldn’t let a hotel owner refuse a room to a person because of their race or allow a restaurant to deny service to a couple based on their religion – and we can’t let that same kind of discrimination apply to Americans based on their sexual orientation or gender identity,” said Maloney, a co-chair of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus. “This is about fairness and the civil rights of all Americans – religion should not be used as a sword to inflict harm on minority groups.”

Cake-bakers and other businesses that refuse service to same-sex couples, who have been allowed to legally marry in all 50 states since a watershed 2015 Supreme Court ruling, are constitutionally protected, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in an interview recently.

Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Cakes has a First Amendment right to refuse service to the couple, Charlie Craig and David Mullins, Sessions said.

The case started in 2012, when Phillips refused to bake a wedding cake for Craig and Mullins, saying that violated his Christian beliefs. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission ruled that the shop could not lawfully deny services to individuals based on their sexual orientation under the Colorado anti-Discrimination Act and required the shop to provide staff training and issue reports on steps taken to come into compliance with the ruling.

Masterpiece Cakeshop appealed the ruling, which was eventually upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. Phillips appealed that decision through his attorneys from the Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative group that took up the case, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari. The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Dec. 5.

Opponents of the DOJ's position say if the court finds that a business owner’s religious conviction or expressive intent trumps civil rights laws, it could undermine local, state, and federal civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination in accessing public accommodations.

“As this friend-of-the-court brief makes clear, a ruling for Masterpiece Cakeshop would be ruling for discrimination, a violation of the Constitutional right to equal treatment under the law,” said Ian Thompson, legislative representative at the ACLU. “It would set a dangerous precedent with implications that go far beyond this case and this couple, jeopardizing long-standing anti-discrimination protections. The ACLU applauds the leadership of Congressman Sean Patrick Maloney, Senator Tammy Baldwin, and the 205 other Members of Congress who joined them to make their commitment to equality clear. No one should ever be refused service by a business that is open to the public simply for who they are or whom they love.”

In the friend-of-the-court brief, signers urge the Supreme Court to affirm the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s initial decision to require Masterpiece Cakeshop to comply with the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act.

The brief considers the history of federal nondiscrimination laws, such as Title II of the Civil Rights Act, and Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), and how rulings regarding those statutes apply to the pending case.

A full version of the brief is available here.

The brief is supported by the Human Rights Campaign, the American Civil Liberties Union, Bend the Arc Jewish Action, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), Lambda Legal, NAACP Legal Defense Fund, National Center for Lesbian Rights, National Center for Transgender Equality, National Employment Law Project, National LGBTQ Task Force, National Women’s Law Center, People for the American Way Foundation, SAGE, Transgender Law Center, Equality California, Equality Delaware, Equality Florida, Equality New Mexico, Equality North Carolina, Garden State Equality, and One Colorado.

Beth Dalbey (Patch National Staff) contributed to this report.

SEE ALSO:

• Jeff Sessions Backs Cake-Baker Who Refused Gay Couple
  
• Gay Marriage: CO Wedding Cake Bakery Gets DOJ Help
  

PHOTO: Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney