The California Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal in a case surrounding a Christian baker who faces punishment for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding.
The state high court issued an order list on Wednesday in which it declined to hear an appeal in the case of California Department of Civil Rights v. Tastries, allowing a lower court ruling against the bakery owner to stand.
Adèle Keim, senior counsel at Becket, the law firm helping to represent Tastries owner Cathy Miller, denounced the state supreme court’s decision, saying it goes against U.S. Supreme Court precedent.
“As the United States Supreme Court has made clear twice already, creative professionals like Cathy Miller shouldn’t have to choose between following their faith and practicing their art,” said Keim in a statement released Thursday.
“California should have dropped its campaign against Cathy years ago and let her design in peace. We plan to appeal this decision to the Supreme Court to defend Cathy’s right to make custom creations that are consistent with her faith.”
In 2017, the California Civil Rights Department filed a complaint against Miller shortly after she declined to make a same-sex couple a wedding cake, alleging that she violated the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
Miller, whose company Tastries also does business as Cathy’s Creations, had refused to make the cake on the basis of her holding religious objections to same-sex marriage.
California Superior Court Judge David Lampe of Kern County ruled in favor of Miller in 2018, rejecting a request for a preliminary injunction against the Christian baker.
"The First Amendment ensures that religious organizations and persons are given proper protection as they seek to teach the principles that are so fulfilling and so central to their lives and faiths, and to their own deep aspirations to continue the family structure they have long revered," wrote Lampe.
"Furthermore, here the State minimizes the fact that Miller has provided for an alternative means for potential customers to receive the product they desire through the services of another talented baker who does not share Miller's belief."
In October 2022, Kern County Judge Eric Bradshaw ruled that California’s Department of Fair Housing and Employment failed to prove that Miller had engaged in discrimination.
"Miller's only motivation, at all times, was to act consistent with her sincere Christian beliefs about what the Bible teaches regarding marriage," wrote Bradshaw. "That motivation was not unreasonable, or arbitrary, nor did it emphasize irrelevant differences or perpetuate stereotypes."
But in February, the Court of Appeal of the State of California, Fifth Appellate District ruled against Miller, concluding that the baker engaged in “intentional discrimination" to refuse to sell a pre-designed white cake to the couple for their wedding.
The court argued that because the request did not convey any explicit endorsement of same-sex marriage, it was not “pure speech” and thus “could have been deployed for any number of different purposes.”
“To conclude this cake is primarily an act of artistic self-expression entitled to First Amendment protection is to hold that any product artfully designed and prepared to have an aesthetically pleasing appearance — e.g., catering displays, cars, homes, jewelry, quilts, shoes, clothing and handbags to name only a few — is protected speech,” read the ruling.
“Not only would such an expansive conception of artistic self-expression drain the First Amendment of meaning, it would invite broad potential disruption to the stream of commerce, where the mere act of providing routine, artfully designed consumer products without any indicia or characteristics associated with speech would be transformed into the self-expression of their maker/designer.”
In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Colorado Christian baker Jack Phillips, who faced hostility from the state government for refusing to make a custom same-sex wedding cake.
The court found Phillips' use of artistic abilities to make a wedding cake carries a "significant First Amendment speech component and implicates his deep and sincere religious beliefs."
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2023 that Colorado couldn't force a Christian web designer to design websites celebrating same-sex marriage.
