Listen to “Colorado Baker in LGBT Cross Hairs Again” on Spreaker.
Last year, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker who was punished by the government for refusing to design a wedding cake for a same-sex couple based on his sincerely-held Christian beliefs. But Jack Phillips is headed back to court yet again after refusing to make a cake celebrating the coming out of a transgender person.
Alliance Defending Freedom is defending Phillips again. Senior Counsel Jonathan Scruggs says a single attorney is bound and determined to make Phillips suffer the legal consequences of not accommodating the LGBT agenda.
This time a transgendered person identifying as a woman named Autumn Scardina wanted Phillips to make a cake celebrating Scardina’s decision to go public with a change in gender identity. Scruggs says it’s just the latest attempt by Scardina and others to sue Phillips.
“It really has been a story of harassment. Jack has received all these different kinds of requests, particularly from this one lawyer but from other people too that are really meant to harass him – things like celebrating Satan’s birthday or other obscene requests that no person would want to create,” said Scruggs.
The Colorado Civil Right Commission was chastened by the Supreme Court for not treating Phillips in a neutral fashion based on his faith. The commission initially joined this latest lawsuit but backed away when the Alliance Defending Freedom presented additional evidence of the state officials treating Phillips in a biased fashion.
While Scruggs believes Phillips is on very strong legal ground, it’s still an extremely stressful time for him.
“The government didn’t want to touch this in the State of Colorado but now that attorney (Scardina), who didn’t like the result of that case, has filed suit against Jack and is seeking attorneys fees and damages that really could put Jack in a very difficult financial situation. Really, his livelihood is on the line,” said Scruggs.
Listen to the full podcast to hear how ADF forced the Colorado Civil Rights Commission to back away from the case, how Phillips approaches his job in the midst of this debate, and what Scruggs thinks of the Equality Act, which would remove the legal underpinning for people like Phillips to live out their faith.
