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WASHINGTON, D.C., July 2, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) – The Supreme Court of the United States has rejected another plea from religious Americans to restore their right to free exercise of religion, this time concerning a Christian florist in Richmond, Washington.
For years, Barronelle Stutzman, the Christian proprietor of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, has been forced into court for refusing to provide flowers for a customer’s same-sex “wedding” ceremony. She had previously served the customer’s every other request for years, and has employed homosexual workers, but her Christian faith compelled her to draw a distinction between serving all individuals and lending her artistic endorsement to celebrations of homosexuality.
The Washington Supreme Court ruled in 2017 that the government may force Christians to serve same-sex “weddings,” a decision the U.S. Supreme Court vacated in 2018, with directions that the lower court consider the case again in light of SCOTUS’s then-recent ruling in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips (which did not end the similar attacks on Phillips).
Yet the Washington Supreme Court ruled against Stutzman again in 2019, prompting her attorneys at Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF) to again petition the nation’s highest court.
On Friday, the U.S. Supreme Court released an updated order list revealing it was refusing to hear the case, leaving the lower ruling against Stutzman in effect. ADF called the news “disappointing,” but without elaborating declared their “fight isn’t over”:
Barronelle Stutzman kindly served a gay customer for YEARS before declining to make art for a ceremony that's sacred in her religion. She was sued & persecuted for acting on deeply held beliefs.
SCOTUS' decision not to hear this case is disappointing –– but our fight isn't over. pic.twitter.com/w4gDao518r
— Alliance Defending Freedom (@AllianceDefends) July 2, 2021
The Christian baker, Jack Phillips, needs your support as he is again being targeted by LGBT activists, despite the fact that his stand against compelled speech and being forced to bake a "wedding" cake for homosexuals was vindicated by the Supreme Court in 2018.
Now, a gender-confused man, "Autumn" Scardina, has succeeded in getting Mr. Phillips fined $500 by Denver District Court judge, A. Bruce Jones, for refusing to make a cake celebrating the man's attempted "transition."
The LGBT mob just won’t leave this Christian baker make his living in peace!
But, Phillips and his legal counsel say they will appeal this ruling.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition which sends moral support and prayers to Mr. Phillips after this latest assault on his right to free speech and not to be forced, in his work, to promote an ideology with which he disagrees.
The fact that the court pursued the complaint by this gender-confused man, after Phillips' right to reject such compelled speech was confirmed by the Supreme Court, is nothing short of targeting by LGBT activists and harassment by the District Court.
In 2018, the Supreme Court overruled an earlier District Court ruling and determined that forcing Phillips to create a homosexual "wedding" cake was a violation of the First Amendment.
But, just before the Supreme Court's ruling, Scardina (the LGBT-activist-plaintiff in this latest miscarriage of justice) demanded that Phillips create a cake celebrating his “transition.” Upon being refused, Scardina sued Phillips.
"The request was for a custom-designed cake, pink on the inside and blue on the outside, to reflect and celebrate a gender transition," Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), a legal organization protecting religious freedom and Phillips' legal counsel, said in a statement on Wednesday.
"Phillips’ shop declined the request because the customer specifically requested that the cake express messages and celebrate an event in conflict with Phillips’ religious beliefs," ADF continued.
"Jack Phillips serves all people but shouldn’t be forced to create custom cakes with messages that violate his conscience," ADF stated. "The harassment of people like Jack … has been occurring for nearly a decade and must stop."
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition which supports Jack Phillips against the latest LGBT efforts to persecute him because of this sincerely held religious beliefs.
Thank you!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
'Court forces Christian baker to make cakes celebrating a transgender ‘transition’' - www.lifesitenews.com/news/court-forces-christian-baker-to-make-cakes-celebrating-a-transgender-transition
'Jack Phillips back in court over refusal to bake transgender cake' - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/jack-phillips-back-in-court-over-refusal-to-bake-transgender-cake
ADF Statement - https://adfmedia.org/case/scardina-v-masterpiece-cakeshop
**Photo Credit: YouTube screen grab
Beyond what it means for Arlene’s Flowers, the decision is another ill omen for conservatives who had placed their hopes in former President Donald Trump’s judicial nominees to restore a more originalist understanding of the Constitution to American law. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Neil Gorsuch were the only justices who voted to hear the case, meaning Trump’s other two appointees, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett, voted to reject it.
Despite some narrow victories for pro-life regulations, religious liberty and other consevative causes, the current Supreme Court (often mischaracterized by both sides as a “conservative majority”), has also made a number of liberal decisions, most notoriously Gorsuch’s 2020 majority opinion redefining “sex discrimination” in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to add sexual orientation and gender identity, in addition to its original biological meaning (Kavanaugh voted with conservatives in that case, and Barrett was not yet on the court).
More recently, Barrett and Kavanaugh also sided with the court’s liberals in voting to dismiss cases concerning federal abortion funding under Title IX and a transgender “right” to opposite-sex bathrooms in public schools, with Gorsuch joining them in the latter case.