Respect for freedom of conscience is terribly limited these days—limited, in most cases, to respect for the consciences of those one agrees with. But there is a glimmer of respect in Monday's 7-2 Supreme Court ruling in favor of a Colorado baker's refusal to create a wedding cake for a same-sex marriage.
Three of the justices who backed the court's landmark 2015 ruling in favor of same-sex marriage—Anthony Kennedy, Elena Kagan, and Stephen Breyer—recognized baker Jack Phillips's right of conscience to refuse to create a cake for the wedding of two men, Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig. What made the ruling possible, for this particular case, is that the court found that Phillips was acting on his “sincere religious beliefs and convictions.” The justices were disturbed that some members of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, which had ruled against Phillips, seemed to discount the possibility that the baker's religious beliefs were sincere and not simply a mask for ill will. This led to the majority's ruling that the commission and Colorado courts had failed to give Phillips the religiously neutral review that the Constitution requires.
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