Monday morning the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of Christian baker Jack Phillips, who declined to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple in Colorado five years ago. Justices Kennedy, Roberts, Alito, Breyer, Kagan, Gorsuch and Thomas ruled in favor of Phillips, with Ginsburg and Sotomayor dissenting.
During oral arguments last year, the Department of Justice openly backed Phillips in the case. Today, they're applauding the outcome.
“We are pleased with today’s Supreme Court decision. The First Amendment prohibits governments from discriminating against citizens on the basis of religious beliefs," Attorney General Jeff Sessions said. "The Supreme Court rightly concluded that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission failed to show tolerance and respect for Mr. Phillips’ religious beliefs. In this case and others, the Department of Justice will continue to vigorously defend the free speech and religious freedom First Amendment rights of all Americans.”
According to the opinion, the case hinged on how a Colorado Commission reviewing the case treated Phillips' and his religious beliefs. The case didn't specifically address whether the First Amendment and religious beliefs outweigh anti-discrimination laws. In short, commissioners were unprofessional jerks who ridiculed Christianity during their official decision making proccess and the Supreme Court sided with Phillips. This was not a broad ruling protecting religious freedom for small business owners or employees.
#SCOTUS didn't resolve the hardest First Am. issues posed by Masterpiece Cakeshop. Instead, it pointed out that they're hard and then ruled that the baker didn't get a fair process from the state. pic.twitter.com/ypDaDy4iu9
— Brad Heath (@bradheath) June 4, 2018
For more on this, check out Guy's analysis of the ruling here.
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