Jack Phillips, the Colorado baker who
refused to make a cake for a gay couple, has sued the state of
Colorado over a dispute with a transgender woman.
According to The
New York Times, Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece
Cakeshop in Lakewood, names Governor John Hickenlooper, a Democrat,
in his lawsuit.
Phillips refused to make a cake with a
blue exterior and a pink interior to mark Autumn Scardina's birthday
and the seventh anniversary of her gender transition.
According to his lawyers, Phillips
refused to make the cake because he believes that gender is “given
by God” and “not determined by perceptions or feelings.”
In June, the Supreme Court handed
Phillips a narrow victory after it ruled that his religious rights
under the First Amendment had been violated by the state's Civil
Rights Commission, which had found that Phillips violated Colorado
law when he refused to make a cake for a gay couple's 2012 Denver
wedding reception. The justices said that the commission had shown
hostility toward Phillips' religious beliefs. The case was remanded
to a lower court. The Supreme Court made clear that the ruling only
applied to Phillips and it left Colorado's law untouched.
Scardina, a lawyer, turned to the same
commission after Phillips refused her request. It determined in June
– just days after the high court handed down its ruling – that
there was probable cause that state law requires Phillips to make
Scardina's gender transition cake.
In his suit, filed in federal court,
Phillips alleges that the state's decision violates his First
Amendment rights.
In a statement, the Christian
conservative Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing
Phillips, said that Phillips “shouldn't have to fear government
hostility when he opens his shop for business each day.”
Hickenlooper told Colorado Public Radio
that while he supports religious freedom it should not be used to
deny anyone service. “I don't think there should be bias involved
[in] who you choose to serve and who you don't,” he
said.