Wedding Cake Wars Take an Interesting UK Turn

Two weeks ago, the UK Supreme Court issued an important ruling in a controversy American church-state lawyers will find familiar. In Lee v. Ashers Baking Company, the court ruled that a Belfast bakery did not violate British anti-discrimination laws when it declined, because of the owners' Christian convictions, to fill a customer's order for a cake promoting gay marriage. The British case strongly resembles—though not exactly—a case our own Supreme Court decided in May, Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. But while the American court sidestepped difficult questions, the British court addressed them directly. The ruling thus offers a roadmap for how our own Supreme Court might decide a similar dispute in the future.