It is the ruling that we have been dreading!
It is now reality… we can be discriminated against just by claiming “it is against my religion!”
There is a small ray of hope in the ruling, in that the ruling just involves this case and now discrimination against us… hopefully.
And this is what I fear,
This creates a two tier system of justice; no longer do we have laws that apply to everyone. Now we have laws that certain people do not have to obey!
Not only does this bring in to question state laws but also the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I foresee in the not too distant future someone refusing to serve or make a cake or whatever a black or a Muslim. I can foresee an interracial couple wanting a wedding cake and being denied it because “it is against my religion.”
Update 12:55
From the Huffington Post...
It is now reality… we can be discriminated against just by claiming “it is against my religion!”
In narrow ruling, Supreme Court gives victory to baker who refused to make cake for gay weddingThis is what we feared!
The opinion did not address the larger question of whether businesses can refuse to serve gay and lesbian customers.
NBC News
By Pete Williams
June 4, 2018
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court gave a boost to advocates of religious freedom on Monday, ruling that a Colorado baker cannot be forced to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, in a case that involved marriage equality and protection from discrimination.
But the opinion was a narrow one, applying to the specific facts of this case only. It gave no hint as to how the court might decide future cases involving florists, bakers, photographers and other business owners who have cited religious and free-speech objections when refusing to serve gay and lesbian customers in the wake of the Supreme Court's 2015 same-sex marriage decision.
In the 7-2 decision, the court said legal proceedings in Colorado had shown a hostility to the baker's religious views. Monday's ruling was written by Justice Anthony Kennedy, who also wrote the Supreme Court's same-sex marriage decision.
There is a small ray of hope in the ruling, in that the ruling just involves this case and now discrimination against us… hopefully.
And this is what I fear,
The Supreme Court's decision means that business owners cannot be successfully sued for refusing on religious grounds to provide services to same-sex couples, even in the 21 states with human rights laws similar to Colorado's ban on discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.Say goodbye to all our hard won laws.
This creates a two tier system of justice; no longer do we have laws that apply to everyone. Now we have laws that certain people do not have to obey!
Not only does this bring in to question state laws but also the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
I foresee in the not too distant future someone refusing to serve or make a cake or whatever a black or a Muslim. I can foresee an interracial couple wanting a wedding cake and being denied it because “it is against my religion.”
Update 12:55
From the Huffington Post...
But the court did not issue a definitive ruling on the circumstances under which people can seek exemptions from anti-discrimination laws based on their religious views.
The commission had said Phillips violated the Colorado anti-discrimination law that bars businesses from refusing service based on race, sex, marital status or sexual orientation by rebuffing gay couple David Mullins and Charlie Craig in 2012.
Two of the court’s four liberals, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, joined the five conservative justices in the ruling authored by Justice Anthony Kennedy.
“The commission’s hostility was inconsistent with the First Amendment’s guarantee that our laws be applied in a manner that is neutral toward religion,” Kennedy wrote, referring to the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.
I honestly despair for your country sometimes and its tendency to go backwards...oy!
ReplyDeleteHi Joanna
ReplyDeleteThis is why so many times I wonder if this system is all that its cracked up to be. We work hard get laws passed and then folks fight us or the country elects a monster like the one in the white house we every thing is thrown into a tizzy. Just changing laws never worked. On the books today off the books the next. Gloria Martin a member of Radical Women and Freedom Socialist Party will be always remembered. I quote here from an article about her, "When Gloria was elected Seattle RW organizer in 1990, at the age of 74, she said: “We have to fight for survival issues, But then we have to go further. We have to change the system, or we’ll be fighting all our lives for the same thing. When people have had enough, revolution can happen suddenly. Our job is to be ready for it.” Had Gloria lived long enough she would have certainly been in the forefront in fighting for trans rights as she was in the early days of the "gay" rights movement. She understood how all of our struggles are connected and that in order to survive the onslaught we must unite in the struggle. Unite in the struggles of all people and push push forward.