The Colorado Supreme Court has dismissed a lawsuit against Christian baker Jack Phillips over his refusal on religious grounds to make a cake celebrating a trans-identified individual’s so-called gender transition.
In a decision released Tuesday, the state’s highest court ruled 4-3 to dismiss the lawsuit against the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop filed by Autumn Scardina, a biological male who identifies as a woman.
Justice Melissa Hart authored the majority opinion, arguing that Scardina’s discrimination claim was not processed adequately before the lawsuit against Phillips was filed.
“Could the district court properly consider the claims of discrimination presented here? In light of this dispute’s procedural journey, it could not,” wrote Hart.
Hart noted that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and the Colorado Civil Rights Division had previously agreed to “dismiss Scardina’s administrative complaint against Masterpiece and Phillips” but “without participation by Scardina.”
“Scardina could have appealed the Commission’s decision to close the administrative adjudication without providing the statutorily mandated order but [he] did not. Instead, [Scardina] brought [his] discrimination claim anew in the district court,” continued Hart.
“We granted certiorari to determine, among other issues, whether Scardina properly filed [his] case in the district court. We conclude that [he] did not.”
Hart clarified that, in dismissing the case, the state supreme court did “not consider the merits of Scardina’s [Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act] claim, nor whether Masterpiece’s conduct was protected under the First Amendment.”
Justice Richard L. Gabriel authored a dissenting opinion, claiming that the majority “erroneously gives Masterpiece and Phillips a procedural pass.”
“Substantively, the majority’s ruling throws Scardina completely out of court and deprives [him] of the opportunity to seek a remedy for alleged discriminatory conduct based on a novel interpretation of law that no party asserted and, to my knowledge, no court has adopted,” wrote Gabriel.
