Supreme Court Rules In Favor Of Colorado Baker

[Angrboda]

@RR, why does religious “liberty” so often involve taking something away from someone else?  Why is interfering with the lives of consenting adults (and paying customers) regarded as a freedom Christians think society owes them?

If a business owner is not willing to provide his goods and services to every paying customer in the general public equally, because he can’t distinguish between business ethics and his personal, private religious beliefs, then maybe he shouldn’t have a business at all.  

FWIW, the court found similar attitudes in the Commission to be hostile to religion and not reflective of the neutrality toward free exercise claims that the law required.  To wit:

The neutral and respectful consideration to which Phillips  was  entitled  was  compromised  here,  however.    The Civil Rights Commission’s treatment of his case has some elements of a clear and impermissible hostility toward the sincere religious beliefs that motivated his objection. That  hostility  surfaced  at  the  Commission’s  formal, public  hearings,  as  shown  by  the  record.    On  May  30, 2014, the seven-member Commission convened publicly to consider Phillips’ case.  At several points during its meeting, commissioners endorsed the view that religious beliefs cannot  legitimately  be  carried  into  the  public  sphere  or commercial  domain,  implying  that  religious  beliefs  and persons are less than fully welcome in Colorado’s business community.  One  commissioner  suggested  that  Phillips can believe “what he wants to believe,” but cannot act on his  religious  beliefs  “if  he  decides  to  do  business  in  the state.”  Tr.  23.  A  few  moments  later,  the  commissioner restated  the  same  position:  “[I]f  a  businessman  wants  to do business in the state and he’s got an issue with the — the law’s impacting his personal belief system, he needs to look  at  being  able  to  compromise.”     Id.,  at  30.

Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission