Threw In The Towel

They gave up and we lost, in Colorado the Colorado Civil Rights Commission is suffering from shellshock.

Colorado baker Jack Phillips, state end legal fight over transgender woman's cake
The baker's attorneys called it a victory, while the state attorney general said both sides "agreed it was not in anyone's best interest to move forward."
NBC News
By Associated Press
March 5, 2019

DENVER — A Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple on religious grounds — a stance partially upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court — and state officials said Tuesday that they would end a separate legal fight over his refusal to bake a cake celebrating a gender transition.

Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and attorneys representing Jack Phillips said they mutually agreed to end two legal actions, including a federal lawsuit Phillips filed accusing the state of waging a "crusade to crush" him by pursuing a civil rights complaint over the gender transition cake.

Phillips' attorneys dubbed the agreement a victory for the baker. Weiser, a Democrat, said both sides "agreed it was not in anyone's best interest to move forward with these cases."

Yeah right!

Let’s through everyone under the bus… gays, trans, lesbians, blacks, Jews, and Muslins!

All you have to do now in Colorado to discriminate against any protected classes just say “it is against my religion” and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and the Colorado Attorney General will go running in the other direction.

What did the Supreme Court rule last year?

It wasn’t on the merits of the law it was the fact that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission brought religion into the ruling on the Masterpiece Cakeshop. In their discussion on the case one of the commissioner mentioned religion as a factor in their ruling against Masterpiece Cakeshop, not that the non-discrimination law was unconstitutional.

Anti-Discrimination Or Religious Freedom? The Masterpiece Question Is Back In Arizona, Colorado Courts
Colorado Public Radio
By Allison Sherry and Will Stone, KJZZ
February 11, 2019

A central question on whether the First Amendment’s protections of religious freedom are more important than a city or state’s anti-discrimination laws that protect gay rights already went to the U.S. Supreme Court last year.

Except the justices didn’t really answer it.

Now a suite of battles in state courts — including Arizona and Colorado — are taking place and experts say one is bound to go up to the high court again.

“The main question is do you get to object to that kind of anti-discrimination law because it’s forcing you to convey a message?” said Ilya Shapiro with the Cato Institute, a conservative think tank that has supported some businesses that have turned business away.
[…]
Last summer, the court narrowly sided with Phillips — and admonished the state’s commission for showing animus against religion.

But because it didn’t settle the looming question on whether the First Amendment guarantees of religious freedom are more important than a state or city’s anti-discrimination laws, similar cases are again simmering in lower courts, including Arizona and Colorado.

So what it is all going to boil down to is are there two sets of laws… one for religious bigots and one for everyone else? And will it only apply against LGBTQ people?

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Do you remember when a number of Unitarians were arrested for leaving water for migrants?

'No More Deaths' Volunteers Face Possible Jail Time For Aiding Migrants
NPR
By Joel Rose
February 28, 2019

For years, volunteers have left food and water in remote stretches of desert along the U.S.-Mexico border. They say they're trying to save the lives of migrants making the dangerous crossing. But the government argues these volunteers are encouraging illegal immigration.

Now several volunteers face jail time when they're sentenced on Friday.

I don’t know why they don’t claim “religious freedom” and we’ll see how far the Supreme Court will take “religious freedom?” Would the court throughout Trumps pet project? I can envision religious freedom fighters cutting holes in Trump’s wall claiming religious freedom.