Colorado officials and the baker who
refused to make a cake for a transgender woman have reached an
agreement to end litigation over his refusal.
Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece
Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado, last year 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.
Phillips' lawyers have said that he
refused to make the cake because he believes that gender is “given
by God” and “not determined by perceptions or feelings.”
As part of the agreement, the Colorado
Civil Rights Commission will voluntarily withdraw its administrative
action against Phillips. Phillips, in turn, will voluntarily
withdraw his federal court case against the state. In his lawsuit,
Phillips accused the state of waging a “crusade to crush” him and
his business.
Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser,
a Democrat, announced the agreement in a statement.
“After careful consideration of the
facts, both sides agreed it was not in anyone’s best interest to
move forward with these cases,” Weiser said. “The larger
constitutional issues might well be decided down the road, but these
cases will not be the vehicle for resolving them. Equal justice for
all will continue to be a core value that we will uphold as we
enforce our state’s and nation’s civil rights laws.”
Last year, the Supreme Court handed
Phillips a narrow victory in a similar case involving a male gay
couple. Phillips in 2012 refused to make a cake for the couple's
Denver wedding reception. The justices said that the state's Civil
Rights Commission had shown hostility toward Phillips' religious
beliefs and remanded the case to a lower court. The high court left
Colorado's law untouched.
Scardina asked Phillips to make her
cake on the same day the Supreme Court announced it would hear
Phillips' appeal in the 2012 case. Within weeks, the commission
found probable cause that Phillips had discriminated against
Scardina. Phillips, in turn, filed his own federal lawsuit against
the state alleging harassment.
Phillips was represented in both cases
by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a group opposed to LGBT
rights.
“We hope that the state is done going
along with obvious efforts to harass Jack,” ADF attorney Jim
Campbell said. “He shouldn't be driven out of business just
because some people disagree with his religious beliefs and his
desire to live consistently with them.”
Weiser said that the agreement does not
affect the ability of Scardina, an attorney, to pursue a claim of her
own.