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The Colorado baker who won a partial Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a same-sex wedding cake on the grounds of religious freedom is back in court.
This time he’s challenging a separate ruling that determined he violated the anti-discrimination act for refusing to make a gender transition cake.
Jack Phillips appeared in Colorado's appeals court earlier this week to overturn a ruling last year in a lawsuit filed by transgender woman Autumn Scardina, according to AP News.
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In 2017, Scardina called Phillips’ business, Masterpiece Cakeshop, to request a birthday cake with blue frosting on the outside and pink on the inside to signify her gender transition.
During the trial last year, Phillips, who identifies as a Christian, argued that he could not make the cake as he did not believe in changing genders, nor would he want to celebrate somebody ‘who thinks they can’.
However, one of Scardina’s lawyers, John McHugh, insisted that Phillips did not have to celebrate her; he merely just had to bake the birthday cake, as he would with any other customer.
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Jake Warner, an attorney representing Phillips from the Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom, told Colorado's appeals court that the ruling was wrong as making the cake would go against Phillips’ beliefs.
He added that forcing the business owner to do so would violate his right to free speech.
Judge Timothy Schutz noted that Phillips’ wife initially told Scardina that the store could make the cake but only refuted it once they found out the design Scardina wanted.
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The Denver Post reported that the two spoke to journalists outside the court, with Scardina telling reporters this case was about the ‘dignity of LGBTQ Americans and Coloradans and the rule of law’.
However, Phillips said that he’s fighting for the rights of all Americans so they can live ‘without fear of punishment’.
In 2018, the Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had acted with anti-religious bias by determining Phillips had violated the anti-discrimination law after he refused to make a wedding for same-sex couple Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins in 2012.
Following the Supreme Court verdict, Craig told The Guardian how important it was to fight for his civil rights.
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He said: “In addition to standing up for ourselves, it’s standing up for these people too.”
He added: “It’s hard to have your marriage under a microscope. It’s something no one should have to go through.”
Charisa Bossinakis