On Tuesday, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case of Jack Phillips a Colorado baker, who refused to make a wedding cake for the marriage of Charlie Craig and David Mullins. Phillips claims that his first amendment rights to freedom of religion and free speech trump the state law that forbids discrimination.
The NY Times has a good opinion piece by Steve Sanders (“ Even the Bernini of Buttercream Has to Serve Gay Couples”) which reviews the full legal arguments and offers many good thoughts on the matter.
But here’s my take.
The main argument of the ‘religious freedom’ crowd is that by the selling of a cake somehow a baker is giving sanction to gay marriage in opposition to his ‘sincerely held religious beliefs’. It is an absurd contention.
If I own a car parts store I do not signal approval for Republicans by selling a fan belt to a guy with a Trump bumper sticker.
I am sure there are atheist bakers who happily sell cakes to evangelical couples. And Jewish bakers who make cakes for Christian weddings.
Religious freedom means that you cannot be required to get gay married. It does not mean you get to judge other people's marital choices.
Mike Huckabee once weighed in on the issue with a ridiculous analogy. He argued that forcing the religious bigot to sell cakes to all happy couples would be like requiring a Jewish deli owner to sell 'bacon-wrapped shrimp". It isn't the same thing.
You cannot require a business to sell anything. The Jewish deli owner is within his rights to sell nothing but left-handed golf clubs. A baker isn't required to make wedding cakes any more than a vegetarian restaurant is required to sell meat pies. But whatever a store does choose to sell it must sell to all. America’s weirdest deli cannot refuse to sell its wares to left-handed Muslim golfers.
Some may argue that means Catholic Priests or evangelical pastors must officiate gay marriages. They would be wrong. Conducting the wedding is give it your approval. It may involve a fee — but it is hardly conducting commerce. And the law exempts churches and their officials.
But a cake is nothing more than a cake. It certainly isn’t speech.