SCOTUS appears split on wedding cake case - Justice Kennedy likely to decide ruling

[underpants]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-court-baker/pivotal-justice-kennedy-poses-tough-questions-in-gay-wedding-case-idUSKBN1DZ0H7

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday appeared closely divided with likely pivotal vote Justice Anthony Kennedy posing tough questions about a Christian baker’s refusal to make a wedding cake for a gay couple but also questioning whether a Colorado civil rights commission that ruled on the issue was unduly biased against religion.

Kennedy, a conservative who sometimes sides with the court’s four liberals in major cases, raised concerns about issuing a ruling siding with the baker that would give a green light to discrimination against gay people.

He mentioned the possibility of a baker putting a sign in his window saying he would not make cakes for gay weddings and wondering if that would be “an affront to the gay community.”

But citing comments made by a commissioner on the state civil rights panel that ruled against the baker, Kennedy said there was evidence of “hostility to religion” and questioned whether that panel’s decision could be allowed to stand.

[Fred Sanders]

1. "Muslim baker refuses to serve women not covering face". There would be a 9-0 ruling. But it

is indefensible Christian religious beliefs being discussed so....close call.

[spanone]

3. Exactly

[kairos12]

6. Yep. If SCOTUS rules in favor of the baker brace yourself

for the Old Testament crazies to come up with every reason in the book to subject society to their prejudices.

[Cyrano]

2. The conservative justices will establish a theocracy

if things like this are found to be okay. Put another way, screw the Constitution. God is in charge. (Naturally a white, male, American, Christian, Republican God.)

[jmowreader]

4. Hostility to religion is a very slippery slope

In my misspent youth, my family was friends with another family...this one was a woman we knew two husbands ago and Husband #5, who was a Jehovah’s Witness.

Jehovah’s Witnesses are a little like Amway...you’re required to always be recruiting, both sell things to pay the bills, and they have tons of conferences you must attend. This guy was told repeatedly he couldn’t do his Jehovah’s Witnesses activities during business hours and he couldn’t have every Friday and every Monday off, and he kept on proselytizing at work and only being there three days a week, so they finally fired him.

Under the theory that religious people can do whatever they want without repercussions, this guy could have sued for religious discrimination and won. On the flipside, this guy’s actiivities were infringing on everyone else’s right to worship as they pleased.

Back to today. I don’t think this is, to the hard right, totally about wedding cakes. Don’t get me wrong, they would surely like to deny gay people the right to have a cake at their weddings (and to have weddings at all, for that matter) but the big prize is the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act. There is a buffer zone between protesters and seekers of women’s health services, and they would really like that eliminated because, as we all know, the most important phrase in the whole Bible is “Thou shalt bully women going into a place that does abortions sometimes.” (Overlooked in all this is that the only thing the Bible says about abortion is how to perform one...google “test for an unfaithful wife.”) They really want FACE gone, and see this as a wedge issue. That this also harasses gay people is a bonus.

[underpants]

5. Thanks. I hadn't heard or considered the health clinic part

It seems to me it's a pretty standard Public Accommodation case.

[Vinca]

7. It's been compared to a 1968 civil rights case that ended up with

the religious argument being ruled frivolous. Let's hope that happens here.

http://www.vnews.com/Some-see-echoes-of--68-court-case-in-wedding-cake-dispute-14119638

[Hawaii Hiker]

8. And Merrick Garland should have been on the court hearing this case

not Neal Gorsuch...