Comments on: Wedding cake cut five ways

By: Walter Olson

Walter Olson — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 15:44:31 +0000

In reply to Anonymous Attorney. That's not how I read the decision, which so far as I can see did not reach that issue.

By: Anonymous Attorney

Anonymous Attorney — Wed, 06 Jun 2018 15:08:47 +0000

So, a secular or atheist baker would almost certainly NOT have the right to decline cake-baking to a gay couple about to be married. Even if he or she had powerful, well-reasoned and deeply felt reasons for opposing gay marriage. It still feels wrong to use government force to make that person decorate a cake for a gay couple.

A larger point might be, if your actual goal is warm acceptance by everyone else, is government force really the way to achieve that?

By: SPO

SPO — Tue, 05 Jun 2018 15:22:03 +0000

The real issues:

Apparently, Ginsburg and Sotomayor don’t care about religious bigotry on the part of state officials imposing punishment on a religious person. Sad.

The Colorado commissioners expressing (or acquiescing to) such views will continue on their merry way. When government officials abuse their power like this, the societal bargain that underpins immunity becomes less and less justifiable from a moral standpoint.

One thing to watch out for–given that SSM etc. is a court creation, courts have skin in the game so to speak and will be incented to tilt the playing field. This has been the case with abortion rights and the First Amendment. A smaller example can be found with Missouri v. Siebert–getting around Miranda (palpably not a constitutional right) could not be tolerated.