SCOTUS again declines to take up Colorado cake store discrimination case

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Supreme Court again failed to act on the case involving the Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood after being listed for consideration for an 11th time.

The judges could still decide to take up the case, despite it being distributed for conference each week since Feb. 21 and still not being taken up.

Jack Phillips, who owns the cake store, has petitioned the court after a lower court ruled he discriminated against a gay couple who wanted him to make them a wedding cake in 2012. Phillips has long claimed that as a Christian, he has the religious freedom to deny business to same-sex couples.

The Colorado Supreme Court last August declined to review the case, agreeing with a Colorado Court of Appeals decision that said the shop could continue to enforce its religious beliefs, but not while operating as a business in Colorado.

The Supreme Court declined to take up a similar case involving a New Mexico photographer after multiple conferences in 2014.