Several Congressional Leaders Now Support Wedding Cake Case
LAKEWOOD, Colo. (CBS4) - Nine Republican Congressional leaders are now supporting a cake shop in Lakewood.
Masterpiece Cakeshop was served with a discrimination lawsuit after the cake shop owner, Jack Phillips, refused to make a wedding cake for Charlie Craig an Dave Mullins, a gay couple.
Since the suit, Phillips was ordered to either bake wedding cakes for same-sex couples or stop baking wedding cakes altogether. He's lost 40 percent of his income and most of his staff.
The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear the case later this fall.
Now, three Republican senators and at least six Republican representatives including Rep. Doug Lamborn, who represents Colorado's 5th Congressional District, filed a "friend of the court" brief to support Phillips and his cake shop.
Phillips says his cakes are an artistic expression, and that making one to celebrate gay marriage violates his religion and First Amendment rights regarding freedom of religion.
He says he declined to create the cake because it would go against his faith, not because of the sexual orientation of the couple.
"I never thought that government would try to take away my freedoms and force me to create something that went against my conscience, but the state of Colorado did," said Phillips. "Every American should be free to choose which art they will create and which art they won't create without fear of unjustly being punished by the government."
The ACLU argues Colorado law bars any public business from refusing service based on sexual orientation and religious freedom does not give you the right to discriminate.
The case will be decided by a U.S. Supreme Court that now includes former Colorado Judge Neil Gorsuch.
In the past, Gorsuch has ruled on the side of religious liberty.
If Phillips wins the case, it would mean florists and photographers could also deny wedding services in those same cases.