In their ongoing effort to turn the United States into a Christian based theocracy the Dominionist have attempted to weaponize the 1st Amendments Freedom of Religion clause as a legal right to discriminate against LGBTQ cititzens.
In Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission the Supreme Court under Johnny the Robber Baron had to decide whether a cake baker could refuse to bake a wedding cake for a Gay couple:
In a 7-2 decision, the Court ruled on narrow grounds that the Commission did not employ religious neutrality, violating Masterpiece owner Jack Phillips' rights to free exercise, and reversed the Commission's decision. The Court did not rule on the broader intersection of anti-discrimination laws, free exercise of religion, and freedom of speech, due to the complications of the Commission's lack of religious neutrality...Kagan and Gorsuch concurrence agreed the Commission exhibited hostility towards Phillips' religious beliefs and concurred with the reversal...She posited the Commission could have ruled differently in the two situations if they had stayed religiously neutral.
Or to use the short version, the Colorado CRC was mean to the Homophobic Baker, so he does not have to serve the Gay couple.
This brings us to Thursday's headlines in the Tacoma News Tribune. In seems that the owner of a “Christian” flower shop in Richland Washington also refused to serve a gay couple based on their “sincere religious beliefs”. The Washington State Supremes ruled in 2017 that this was a violation of the States anti-discrimination law.
The lawyers for the florist, the so called Alliance Defending Freedom appealed to the US Supremes and in light of the Masterpiece decision the Court:
...sent the case back to the state level last year for a determination on whether decisions in the case had violated the U.S. Constitution's guarantee of religious neutrality…
Or when translated from legalease to English: Do our dirty work for us and reverse your decision. Do not force us to rule that it is legally permitted to discriminate against the Gay. While some of us have no problem with the discrimination we do not want to put it in a legal opinion because it would open up a major can of worms. It would set a precedent that anyone could ignore the Civil Rights Act of 1964 by shouting religious freedom.
Well gosh darn if the Washington Supremes said NO and reaffirmed the decision:
Arlene’s Flowers owner vows to fight on after justices say she discriminated against gay couple
JUNE 06, 2019 10:04 AM
A Richland flower shop’s owner broke the law when she refused to design arrangements for a same-sex wedding in 2013, the state’s high court ruled...
...“We have painstakingly reviewed the record for any sign of intolerance on behalf of this court or the Benton County Superior Court, the two adjudicatory bodies to consider this case,” the state Supreme Court said in its 76-page opinion, signed by all nine justices.
“After this review, we are confident that the two courts gave full and fair consideration to this dispute and avoided animus toward religion. We therefore find no reason to change our original decision in light of Masterpiece Cakeshop (of Colorado).”
The owner of the flower shop plans to appeal a 2nd time:
Stutzman issued a statement during a telephone news conference with Alliance Defending Freedom, which will petition the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time to hear the Arlene’s Flowers case...Stutzman said her faith homophobia guides her to treat everyone with respect and love, and she has done that through her business.
I guess discrimination is a form of love. Who knew?
Assuming the Supreme’s agree to hear the petition and again decide to reverse the ruling from the Washington Supreme Court I can garantee they will come up with some stupid excuse to justify it other than the truth.
It will also be a legal opinion so twisted that you can bake it into a pretzel.