Justices Sharply Divided in Wedding Cake Case
Later, though, Justice Kennedy said that a state civil rights commission
that had ruled against the baker had “neither been tolerant nor respectful of Mr. Phillips’s religious beliefs.”
The case, which pits claims of religious freedom against the fight for gay rights, has
attracted extraordinary public attention and about 100 friend-of-the-court briefs.
He asked a lawyer for the Trump administration whether the baker, Jack Phillips, could put a sign in his window saying,
“We don’t bake cakes for gay weddings.” The lawyer, Noel J. Francisco said yes, so long as the cakes were custom made.
WASHINGTON — Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who almost certainly holds the crucial vote in the case of a Colorado baker who refused
to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, sent sharply contradictory messages when it was argued Tuesday at the Supreme Court.
Justice Kennedy called for “an open and searching debate” between those who opposed same-sex marriage on religious grounds
and those who considered such unions “proper or indeed essential.”
At Tuesday’s argument, he indicated sympathy for the rights of gay men and lesbians.
But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the court’s 2015 decision establishing a constitutional
right to same-sex marriage had anticipated good-faith disagreements over gay unions.
