Gay marriage plaintiff: Supreme Court's cake ruling is 'un-American'

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Supreme Court gives victory to a Colorado baker who refused to make cake for a gay wedding.
USA TODAY

LOUISVILLE — The Supreme Court’s ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who declined to bake a cake for a same-sex couple is a setback for equality, according to a Kentucky plaintiff and a lawyer who helped legalize gay marriage. 

“It’s un-American,” said Tim Love, a Louisville resident and a plaintiff in the landmark 2015 case that legalized same-sex marriage. “… Are we now going to have a hierarchy of rights? It’s really not about religion, it’s about discrimination and hatred.” 

On Monday, the Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of business owner Jack Phillips, who objected to baking a cake for a gay couple on religious grounds. 

In writing the court’s majority opinion, Justice Anthony Kennedy acknowledged that denying gay couples equal access to services is “inconsistent with the history and dynamics of civil rights law” but said Phillips may have been within Colorado state law at the time. 

Phillips claimed a religious victory, according to a statement released to USA TODAY. 

“The Supreme Court affirmed that the government must respect my religious beliefs about marriage,” he wrote for USA TODAY. “It welcomed me back from the outskirts, where the state had pushed me.”

Dan Canon, a Louisville lawyer who represented numerous plaintiffs in the 2015 gay marriage case, said he doubts that “history will be very kind to this opinion.” 

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Baker Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, right, manages his shop, June 4, 2018, in Lakewood, Colo. The Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of Phillips, who wouldn’t make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple, in a limited decision that leaves for another day the larger issue of whether a business can invoke religious objections to refuse service to gay and lesbian people. 
David Zalubowski, AP

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Follow Thomas Novelly on Twitter: @TomNovelly

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Tim Love recounts how he and his husband were among six Kentucky gay and lesbian couples who were plaintiffs in a landmark Supreme Court 5-4 decision legalizing gay marriage.

 

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