On Wednesday, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton took to the Colorado Supreme Court to defend a man from being forced to create a “transition from male-to-female” cake.
The man, Jack Phillips, runs Masterpiece Cakeshop. This isn’t his first rodeo. In 2012, Philips famously refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple and was accused of discrimination and censured by the Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
Ultimately, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Philips, rejecting the Commission’s accusations for being “hostile” to Philips’ “religious viewpoint.”
Then, a transgender attorney, Autumn Scardina, insisted Philips create a “transition from male-to-female” cake with a pink filling and a blue exterior, to which Philips refused.
“Scardina asked Phillips to create a cake with a blue exterior, representing Scardina’s biological sex, and a pink interior, representing Scardnia’s gender identity,” part of the brief filed by Paxton reads.
Philips is once again facing a lawsuit over his religious viewpoints, this time in a lawsuit brought by transgender attorney Scardina.
Thankfully for Christians, Texas Attorney General Paxton filed a multistate amicus brief in the Colorado Supreme Court and is defending Philips.
“I am profoundly disheartened by the targeted harassment experienced by baker Jack Phillips on the basis of his religion,” Attorney General Paxton wrote in a statement.
“His victimization is emblematic of a growing, un-American attempt to impose ideological conformity on our citizens. The Constitution protects us from coerced speech and expression. Courts deciding otherwise risk plunging our nation into totalitarianism,” he added.
Paxton’s brief reads, “The First Amendment covers more than just words. Conduct that is ‘intended to be communicative and that, in context, would reasonably be understood by the viewer to be communicative’ is protected.”
“Custom cakes are also expressive,” the brief explains.
“When Phillips creates a custom cake, he ‘express[es] an intended message.’ Phillips learns about the customer and his celebration, ‘envisions himself … taking part in the occasion,’ and creates a cake representing the ‘unique’ celebration,” the brief continues.
“Forcing him to use those skills to renounce supposed ‘errors of thinking,’ as Scardina desired, is the very definition of compelled speech,” the brief reads.
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