Title: State Silences Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple, Fines Them $135K Source:
The Daily Signal URL Source:http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/02/s ... esbian-couple-fines-them-135k/ Published:Jul 3, 2015 Author:Kelsey Harkness Post Date:2015-07-03 15:47:13 by Hondo68 Keywords:gag order on the Kleins, Christian beliefs, will not be silenced Views:26913 Comments:124
Melissa Klein. (Photo: Patrick Frank)
Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian finalized a preliminary ruling today ordering Aaron and Melissa Klein, the bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to the couple they denied service.
This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage, Avakian wrote. It is about a businesss refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.
In the ruling, Avakian placed an effective gag order on the Kleins, ordering them to cease and desist from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs.
This effectively strips us of all our First Amendment rights, the Kleins, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which has since closed, wrote on their Facebook page. According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech.
The cease and desist came about after Aaron and Melissa Klein participated in an interview with Family Research Councils Tony Perkins. During the interview, Aaron said among other things, This fight is not over. We will continue to stand strong.
Lawyers for plaintiffs, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, argued that in making this statement, the Kleins violated an Oregon law banning people from acting on behalf of a place of public accommodation (in this case, the place would be the Kleins former bakery) to communicate anything to the effect that the place of public accommodation would discriminate.
Administrative Law Judge Alan McCullough, who is employed by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and was appointed by Avakian, threw out the argument in the proposed order he issued back in April.
But today, Avakian, who was in charge of making the final ruling in the caseand is also an elected politicianreversed that decision.
The Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby orders [Aaron and Melissa Klein] to cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published any communication to the effect that any of the accommodations will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination be made against, any person on account of their sexual orientation, Avakian wrote.
(Photo: Alex Anderson/Facebook)
The Kleins lawyer, Anna Harmon, was shocked by the provision.
Brad Avakian has been outspoken throughout this case about his intent to rehabilitate those whose beliefs do not conform to the states ideas, she told The Daily Signal. Now he has ruled that the Kleins simple statement of personal resolve to be true to their faith is unlawful. This is a brazen attack on every Americans right to freely speak and imposes government orthodoxy on those who do not agree with government sanctioned ideas.
Hans von Spakovsky, a senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, called the order outrageous and said citizens of Oregon should be ashamed.
This order is an outrageous abuse of the rights of the Kleins to freely practice their religion under the First Amendment, he said.
It is exactly this kind of oppressive persecution by government officials that led the pilgrims to America. And Commissioner Avakians order that the Kleins stop speaking about this case is even more outrageousand also a fundamental violation of their right to free speech under the First Amendment.
Avakian would have fit right in as a bureaucrat in the Soviet Union or Red China. Oregon should be ashamed that such an unprincipled, scurrilous individual is a government official in the state.
The case began in February 2013 when Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer filed a complaint against the Kleins for refusing to bake them a wedding cake.
At the time of the refusal, same-sex marriage had not yet been legalized in Oregon.
The Bowman-Cryers complaint went to the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, which is in charge of defending the law that prohibits businesses from refusing service to customers based on their sexual orientation, among other characteristics, called the Equality Act of 2007.
In January 2014, the agency found the Kleins unlawfully discriminated against the couple because of their sexual orientation. In April, McCullough recommended they pay $75,000 to Rachel and $60,000 to Laurel.
In order to reach the total amount, $135,000, Rachel and Laurel submitted a long list of alleged physical, emotional and mental damages they claim to have experienced as a result of the Kleins unlawful conduct.
Examples of symptoms included acute loss of confidence, doubt, excessive sleep, felt mentally raped, dirty and shameful, high blood pressure, impaired digestion, loss of appetite, migraine headaches, pale and sick at home after work, resumption of smoking habit, shock stunned, surprise, uncertainty, weight gain and worry.
In their Facebook post, the Kleins signaled their intention to appeal Avakians ruling, writing, We will not give up this fight and we will not be silenced, already perhaps putting themselves at risk of violating the cease and desist.
Poster Comment:
The judge told them to STFU about Christ. They're not going to.
Well, of course, according to your esteemed opinion it is ALL my fault. Man, I am humbled; yet, I have never advocated homosexual rights like your pal, yukon.
You're getting off topic. But that thread I deleted the other day. Where you practically confessed that it was you that hacked Yukon. I should undelete it and chage the title to "Is This Buckeroos confession about Yukon". Yeah things can be undeleted.
That was a MOST interesting thread....yes, it was!
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
#41. To: hondo68, buckeroo, Ferret Mike, A K A Stone, misterwhite, CZ82, Fred Mertz, rlk, Deckard, justified, jeremiad, nativist nationalist, Gatlin (#0)
The judge told them to STFU about Christ. They're not going to.
This is inaccurate.
The "Judge" spoken of was an Administrative Law Judge (an employee of an administrtive agency). An ALJ used to be called a Hearing Officer. He is not part of the judicial branch and does not preside over trials. As described below, the ALJ did not impose the cited cease and desist order, the Commissioner did.
In this case, [from the article]
Lawyers for plaintiffs, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, argued that in making this statement, the Kleins violated an Oregon law banning people from acting on behalf of a place of public accommodation (in this case, the place would be the Kleins former bakery) to communicate anything to the effect that the place of public accommodation would discriminate.
Administrative Law Judge Alan McCullough, who is employed by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and was appointed by Avakian, threw out the argument in the proposed order he issued back in April.
A. NOW, THEREFORE, as authorized by ORS 659A.850, and to eliminate the effects of the violation of ORS 659A.403 by Respondent Aaron Klein, and as payment of the damages awarded, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby orders Respondents Aaron Klein and Melissa Klein to deliver to the Administrative Prosecution Unit of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, 1045 State Office Building, 800 NE Oregon Street, Portland, Oregon 97232-2180, a certified check payable to the Bureau of Labor and Industries in trust for Complainants Rachel Bowman-Cryer and Laurel Bowman-Cryer in the amount of:
1) ONE HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($135,000), representing compensatory damages for emotional and mental physical suffering, to be apportioned as follows:
2) Interest at the legal rate on the sum of $135,000 from the date of issuance of the Final Order until Respondents comply with the requirements of the Order herein.
B. NOW, THEREFORE, as authorized by ORS 659A.850 and ORS 659A.855, and to further eliminate the effect of the violation of ORS 659AA03 by Respondent Aaron Klein, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby orders Respondents Aaron Klein and Melissa Klein to cease and desist from denying the full and equal accommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of Sweetcakes by Melissa to any person based on that person's sexual orientation.
DATED this 21st day of April, 2015.
Alan McCullough, Administrative Law Judge Bureau of Labor and Industries
Note the absence of any gag order in the Proposed Order of the ALJ. It was later inserted into the Final Order by Commissioner Brad Avakian.
The ALJ who conducted the hearing submitted his Proposed Order to the Oregon Commissioner of Labor and Industry (BOLI) who issued the Final Order.
Sweetcakes Final Order by Oregon Bureau of Labor and Insustry Commissioner Brad Avakian, at 42-43, ORDER. Pdf (122 pp.)
[underline added]
ORDER
NOW, THEREFORE, as authorized by ORS 659A850(4), and to eliminate the effects of the violation of ORS 659A403 by Respondent Aaron Klein, and as payment of the damages awarded, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby orders Respondents Aaron Klein and Melissa Klein to deliver to the Administrative Prosecution Unit of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, 1045 State
Office Building, 800 NE Oregon Street, Portland, Oregon 97232-2180, a certified check payable to the Bureau of Labor and Industries in trust for Complainants Rachel Bowman-Cryer and Laurel Bowman-Cryer in the amount of:
1) ONE HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS ($135,000), representing compensatory damages for emotional, mental and physical suffering, to be apportioned as follows:
2) Interest at the legal rate on the sum of $135,000 from the date of issuance of the Final Order until Respondents comply with the requirements of the Order herein.
B. NOW, THEREFORE, as authorized by ORS 659A850(4), and to further eliminate the effect of the violation of ORS 659A403 by Respondent Aaron Klein, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby orders Respondents Aaron Klein and Melissa Klein to cease and desist from denying the full and equalaccommodations, advantages, facilities and privileges of Sweetcakes by Melissa to any person based on that person's sexual orientation.
C. NOW, THEREFORE, as authorized by ORS 659A850(4), and to further eliminate the effect of the violations of ORS 659A409 by Respondents Aaron Klein and Melissa Klein, the Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries hereby
FINAL ORDER (Sweetcakes, ##44-14 & 45-14) - 42
- - - - -
orders Respondents Aaron Klein and Melissa Kleinto cease and desist from publishing, circulating, issuing or displaying, or causing to be published, circulated, issued or displayed , any communication, notice, advertisement or sign of any kind to the effect that any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges of a place of public accommodation will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination will be made against, any person on account of sexual orientation.
DATED this 2 day of July, 2015.
Brad Avakian, Commissioner Bureau of Labor and Industries
2013 ORS, Vol. 14, Chapter 659A, (Unlawful Discrimination In Public Accommodations)
§ 659A.409
Notice that discrimination will be made in place of public accommodation prohibited
age exceptions
Except as provided by laws governing the consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors and the frequenting by minors of places of public accommodation where alcoholic beverages are served, and except for special rates or services offered to persons 50 years of age or older, it is an unlawful practice for any person acting on behalf of any place of public accommodation as defined in ORS 659A.400 (Place of public accommodation defined)to publish, circulate, issue or display, or cause to be published, circulated, issued or displayed, any communication, notice, advertisement or sign of any kind to the effect that any of the accommodations, advantages, facilities, services or privileges of the place of public accommodation will be refused, withheld from or denied to, or that any discrimination will be made against, any person on account of race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status or age if the individual is 18 years of age or older. [Formerly 659.037; 2003 c.521 §3; 2005 c.131 §2; 2007 c.100 §7]
Government prohibition of speech in advance of publication.
One of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the First Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution is the freedom from prior restraint. Derived from English Common Law, the rule against prior restraint prohibits government from banning expression of ideas prior to their publication. The rule against prior restraint is based on the principle that Freedom of the Press is essential to a free society. Attempts by government to obtain a prior restraint have largely been unsuccessful.
The rule against prior restraint was undisputed for much of U.S. history. The landmark case of Near v. Minnesota, 283 U.S. 697, 51 S. Ct. 625, 75 L. Ed. 1357 (1931), finally settled the issue, with the U.S. Supreme Court finding that the First Amendment imposed a heavy presumption against the validity of a prior restraint.
In Near, the Court struck down a Minnesota state law that permitted public officials to seek an Injunction to stop publication of any "malicious, scandalous and defamatory newspaper, magazine, or other periodical." The statute was used to suppress publication of a small Minneapolis newspaper, the Saturday Press, which had crudely maligned local police and political officials, often in anti-Semitic terms. The law provided that once a newspaper was enjoined, further publication was punishable as Contempt of court.
Chief Justice Charles Evans Hughes, in his majority opinion, called the law "the essence of censorship" and declared it unconstitutional. With its decision, the Court incorporated the First Amendment freedom of the press into the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. This incorporation made freedom of the press fully applicable to the states.
Though Hughes agreed that a rule against prior restraint was needed, he acknowledged that this restriction was not absolute. The rule would not, for example, prevent government in time of war from prohibiting publication of "the sailing dates of transports or the number and location of troops." Threats to national security interests are almost certain to prevail over freedom of the press, but it has proved difficult to invoke the "national security" justification.
IMHO, the Oregon law runs afoul of prior restraint and should be struck down as an unconstitutional exercise of assholedness. This does not appear to be a close call.
A constitutional issue might be whether the Klein's refused service because of the sexual orientation of the customers, or because of their own firmly held religious beliefs which prevented the Kleins from performing or partaking in certain actions.
He's mocked the site and called it the "chit chat channel" a hundred times. If he doesn't value or respect the site, then he obviously won't care if he's outcast.
Bye bye Ba ba ba ba Bucky
He'll return under another ID and disrupt. That's what no-rules, anything goes anarchists do.
I'm the infidel... Allah warned you about. كافر المسلح
Americans who have no experience with, or knowledge of, tyranny believe that only terrorists will experience the unchecked power of the state. They will believe this until it happens to them, or their children, or their friends.
When I first moved to Oregon in 1972 at age eighteen, there used to be signs at stores in the Cave Junction ares that said, "No dogs or hippies allowed."
In a civil society, there is no room for the growth of such cancerous and malicious bigotry that endangers thee lives, welfare and peace of mind of people like this. The above link takes you to the story of the mascot hippie statue Dutch Brothers Coffee had given that area to remind them how much damage and turmoil in the community this sort of hatred and intolerance causes.
The hatred still lies smoldering beneath the surface and Dutch Brothers has decided to remove the mascot surprised this hatred and intolerance exists.
Allowing places like the cake store to cause a similar wave of business bans against people to grow entire communities into 'us against them' discrimination and fratricide is something my state does not want or need.
No store in Cave Junction would dare to ban someone for being targeted in such a malicious and mean spirited way that removes their felling of safety, peace of mind and right to live and function in the general community. This law helps prevent tis ffrom happening.
Now you know where some of the raison d'etre for this statute. I whole hardheartedly support the state protecting small groups of citizens from being victims of this sort of commercial lynch mob mentality.
I can;'t cut and past the statement from this Facebook page; but is is of course easily accessed in the link.
As for the mascot issue, Dutch Brother's Coffee Co. was stupid to stir this pot again. But it served to remind all of the good sound rational ffor insuring the safe access of businesses in a community to all who wish to use them.
Intelligent humans should respect and protect non-human intelligent beings. Never kill or enslave dolphins ~ Mike McCarthy
Beginning with the Exclusion Law of 1844 enacted by the provisional government of the region, Oregon passed a series of measures designed to ban African American settlement in the territory. Historian Elizabeth McLagan describes those laws in the article below.
Oregon passed exclusion laws against African Americans twice during the 1840s, considered another law in the 1850s, and in 1857 approved an exclusion clause as part of its constitution. Exclusion laws were also passed in Indiana and Illinois and considered in Ohio, but Oregon was the only free state admitted to the Union with an exclusion clause in its constitution.
The first exclusion law was passed in 1844 by the Provisional Government of Oregon, the temporary governing political structure set up by the first American settlers to reach the region over the Oregon Trail. This first law included a ban on slavery and a requirement that slaveowners free their slaves. African Americans who remained in Oregon after their freedom was granted, however, would be whip-lashed and expelled. If they were caught again in the Territory within six months, the punishment would be repeated. This law was amended to substitute hard labor for whiplashing, and was repealed in 1845, before it could take effect.
In 1849 another exclusion law was passed. This one allowed black residents already in Oregon to remain, but banned further African American in-migration. Ship owners were responsible for their black crew members and could be fined $500 if the crew member jumped ship and remained in Oregon. In this second version, African Americans would be arrested and then ordered to leave. This law was in effect until 1854, when, in a general housekeeping act, it was repealed. Later attempts to reintroduce it suggest that this repeal was accidental.
In 1857, when a constitution was written in anticipation of statehood, a third exclusion clause was inserted, prohibiting new in-migration of African Americans, as well as making illegal their ownership of real estate and entering into contracts. They were also denied the right to sue in court. This clause, Article 1 Section 35, was subject to popular vote, as was the adoption of a ban on slavery and the entire constitution. The exclusion clause received more popular votes than the approval of the constitution or the ban on slavery. Although enabling legislation was never passed and the clause was voided by the14th and 15th Amendments passed after the Civil War, the ban remained a part of Oregons constitution until it was finally repealed in 1927.
Oregon was largely settled by white immigrants who emigrated with their values and prejudices. Passing exclusion laws in an area far removed from sectarian conflict, the majority argued for the freeing and removal of slaves brought to Oregon Territory and favored the avoidance of the race problem altogether through this means.
Jesse Applegate, who supported the repeal of the exclusion law in 1845 and opposed its inclusion in the states constitution, believed that many immigrants to Oregon, especially those less well-off, had strong prejudices against African Americans, whether slave or free. Born in Kentucky, he later lived in Missouri and came to Oregon in 1843. In 1878 he recalled, Being one of the 'Poor Whites' from a slave state I can speak with some authority for that classMany of those people hated slavery, but a much larger number of them hated free negroes worse even than slaves.
Peter Burnett, another influential immigrant, championed Oregon Territory as a place with many opportunities to start afresh and escape the problems of the eastern region. His letters from the territory were often published in newspapers, and in one he argued, The object is to keep clear of this most troublesome class of population. We are in a new world, under most favorable circumstances, and we wish to avoid most of these great evils that have so much afflicted the United States and other countries. He later attempted to justify this law, arguing that emigration was a privilege, not an inherent right, and not a violation of constitutional rights. Since African Americans could not vote, he reasoned, it was best to deny them residence as well.
A third contemporary reason offered for excluding African Americans from Oregon was the perceived fear that Native Americans and African Americans might make common cause against whites. Samuel Thurston, delegate to Congress in 1850, detailed a scenario in which African Americans would intermarry with, civilize, and educate Native Americans, creating a strong coalition against white power. Long and bloody wars would be the result, and therefore the principle of self preservation justifies the action of the Oregon Legislature. Whether due to imported racism, a desire to avoid problems, or fears of an anti-white alliance, Oregonians elected to secure their state against racial issues by exclusion.
It is impossible to determine how many African Americans avoided Oregon because of the exclusion laws and the climate of prejudice they mirrored, but evidence suggests that, in at least three cases, African Americans of means were directly affected by these laws. George Washington Bush, a wealthy man of color who had left Missouri because of prejudice, deliberately avoided the southern section of Oregon Territory and in 1844 settled in the wilderness north of the Columbia River where the exclusion law could not be enforced. Washington was organized as a separate territory in 1853, and Bush was free to stay. Among the tiny population of Oregon's early African American settlers were two entrepreneurs who were specifically targeted for exclusion. Jacob Vanderpool, who owned three businesses in Salem, was expelled in 1851, and the same year a Portland merchant, O.B. Francis, was arrested. Although he was freed, he moved to British Columbia in 1860. Thus, African Americans of means, who might have made distinguished contributions to their own community and to Oregon, were forced or chose to go elsewhere because of the racist laws they encountered.
Oregons constitutional exclusion clause proved resistant to repeal efforts. Anecdotal evidence suggests that African Americans coming from the South, where state law trumped federal law, saw the exclusion clause as at least an implied threat to their liberty, and so Portlands black community lobbied hard for its removal. Beginning in 1893, a repeal resolution was introduced in the state legislature. Stalled until 1900, the repeal clause was finally submitted to the voters, where it was defeated by a small margin. Repeal resolutions were passed in 1901, 1903, and 1915 and one was narrowly defeated in the election of 1916. The Oregon Voter, a non-partisan paper, had this post-election comment: Ignorance there was, no doubt, but the race prejudice was reflected nevertheless, and to our knowledge many voted NO in a spirit of protest, realizing full well that the vote could have no effect on the citizenship status of the negro. After another eleven years, the amendment was approved and in 1927 the exclusion clause was finally removed from Oregons constitution.
Sources: Elizabeth McLagan, A Peculiar Paradise: A History of Blacks in Oregon (Portland: Georgian Press, 1980); Quintard Taylor, "Slaves and Free Men: Blacks in the Oregon Country, 1840-1860," Oregon Historical Quarterly 83:2 (Summer 1982); K. Keith Richard, "Unwelcome Settlers: Black and Mulatto Oregon Pioneers," Oregon Historical Quarterly 84:1 (Spring 1983).
Here is another past problem with laws predicated on the notions of hatred and intolerance that once plagued the Beaver State. The central notion of the bigotry of the owners of this bakery is precisely the same as that of the old 'Black Laws of Oregon.' Such hatred and intolerance has no place in this state or the United States in general.
The hatred and intolerance of a targeted minority does not sit well in my state. Religion has often been the sheepskin on the shoulders of the wolf off bigotry and hated. The religious rights of the Bakery's owners was never the real issue of substance in the the denial of service to bake that cake. Such garbage has too often been cited as a justification for the hated and intolerance of others too many times here.
The lameness of the contrivance of this excuse for this unacceptable behavior by this business is baldly obvious to too many people here who have seen it used many times before to try to justify bigotry, hatred and intolerance to assign it any merit as a true argument having any true merit..
Intelligent humans should respect and protect non-human intelligent beings. Never kill or enslave dolphins ~ Mike McCarthy
Are these judges able to silence other Christians in speaking in the bakers place?
If one hundred comes and speaks will they be prosecuted or jailed? Is it possible to prosecute Christians in other states for violating gag order? How far the prosecution can go? Few months of prison or several years?
Christianity is not the target of the law. The law identified the real problem involved here is bigotry, intolerance and hatred. They would have used the same contrivance of an argument against any Christian same gender couple.
I know I have no rancor towards them because of their religion. That flimsy argument is in no way why I myself support the sanctions levied against them. In fact, I have reconciled with my faith and am myself once again a practicing Christian. I rejoined the Roman Catholic faith late last year and don't in any way regret doing so. It is something I should of done years ago.
Intelligent humans should respect and protect non-human intelligent beings. Never kill or enslave dolphins ~ Mike McCarthy
"for being targeted in such a malicious and mean spirited way that removes their felling of safety, peace of mind and right to live and function in the general community."
Oh, please. Enough with the melodrama.
Any other rational and sane person would have respected their religious beliefs and found another bakery. You support these dykes because you support their cause.
Had this been a Jewish bakery which refused make a cake topped with swastika, you'd be supporting the bakery.
"The law identified the real problem involved here is bigotry, intolerance and hatred."
Then the law screwed up. The bakery was not discriminating against the dykes. They could have ordered anything they wanted. And the bakery would have welcomed their business.
What the bakery wouldn't do was participate in something (gay marriage) that went against their religious beliefs.
Ever hear the phrase, "Hate the sin, love the sinner"? As a Roman Catholic myself, that is what I was taught.
But Christians can separate the sin from the sinner. Homosexuals can't (or won't). To them, criticizing their sinful behavior is exactly the same as criticizing them as a person.
the real problem involved here is bigotry, intolerance and hatred
Which has lead you to becoming a wanabe tyrant trying to force people to worship your god...
Dutch Brothers hippie mascot idol (false god)
NO, you can't let people live in peace, if they disagree with you. You're on a jihad to make them slaves, and force them to bake you gay wedding cakes.
Had this been a Jewish bakery which refused make a cake topped with swastika, you'd be supporting the bakery.
Marriage for all is not an ideology that attacks the right to exist of these woman. It is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution. Millions of Jews were genealogically murdered by Nazis in the commission of the Shoah.
The woman did not come into the bakery to bait or bedevil the owners, they just wanted a cake baked for them.
If a Nazi wants to go into a Jewish bakery for a cake I support his or her right to peacefully buy one from it.
But if they want to bait the establishment with a logo for an ideology of Antisemitism that has that much blood on it, you are right; I would support a well justified refusal to shun such obvious Jew-baiting.
"The woman did not come into the bakery to bait or bedevil the owners, they just wanted a cake baked for them."
We don't know that. Based on their response to being denied, it's doubtful. Remember, same-sex marriage was not legal in Oregon at the time.
"Marriage ... is a right protected by the U.S. Constitution."
It is now. Not back then. That argument has no merit.
"I would support a well justified refusal to shun such obvious Jew-baiting."
And what if the dykes knew the owners of the bakery were deeply religious and did this intentionally to hurt them for being "bigots"? Is your version of the law based on intent? Or ideology.
I remember this story when it first came out. They were quite blindsided and hurt by the refusal by the bakery. They had no ax to grind when they sought to conduct normal business with the establishment.
It is now. Not back then. That argument has no merit.
Back then, the bakery's refusal had no merit. All these woman wanted was a cake celebrating their commitment to each other. The establishment had no justification in using a flimsy argument of this nature to justify bigotry toward these customers.
"They were quite blindsided and hurt by the refusal by the bakery."
That's what they said all right. But I'm guessing they knew they weren't going to get $135,000 if they admitted they targeted the bakery for their religious beliefs.
Had they not found one single bakery in town to bake them a cake for their (illegal) wedding, they'd have a reason for being distraught. Even then, it's only a f**king cake. It's not like they were thrown in jail.
If they say it was about more than the cake, then they're practically admitting they did this intentionally.
If the women came in and wanted a cake saying, "send down another one, we'll nail him up too," they would of very likely been baiting the owners of the Bakery. If they just wanted the normal variety of cake bake there, they had a right to expect the establishment to bake it.
As for your personal problems with mindless hatred and the propensity to bait, that is your problem. I am here stating my opinions, if the free expression of them bothers you, by all means, ban me. That is your prerogative.