Sweet Cakes By Melissa Appeals To The United States Supreme Court

GRESHAM, OR – Aaron and Melissa Klein, who were fined more than $100,000 for refusing to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, are appealing their case to the United States Supreme Court. The couple have since closed their bakery, Sweet Cakes by Melissa.

The couple were fined $135,000 by Oregon for refusing to bake the cake in February 2013 for Laurel and Rachel Bowman-Cryer. While the Kleins said that their decision had been based on their religious beliefs, the state said it was still discrimination.

Their efforts to get the fine thrown out – saying the state had violated their First Amendment rights –have since been rebuffed by both the Oregon Court of Appeals and the Oregon Supreme Court.

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Lawyers for the Kleins are asking the Supreme Court justices to use their decision last year in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case to make it clear that the state cannot compel individuals to create messages that are at odds with their religious beliefs. Masterpiece Cakeshop is a Colorado establishment that also refused to bake for a gay couple.

The large difference in the two cases is that in ruling for Masterpiece, the justices limited thier ruling to the fact that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission had violated its charter by veering from religious neutrality when they compared the beliefs of the bakery owners to slavery.

There is no schedule on when the Supreme Court might decide on whether to hear the case. While the court receives around 7,000 requests a year, it typically considers around 140 at most.

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