Lawyers for the baker, Jack Phillips of Masterpiece Bakeshop in Lakewood, Colo., argued that Phillips’s objection to same-sex marriage was not the same as him discriminating against a gay person. They also argued that requiring Phillips to sell a cake to a gay couple so infringed on Phillips’s beliefs that the infringement on Phillips’s rights trumped the anti-discrimination law.
The Colorado appeals court held that no reasonable observer “would interpret Masterpiece’s providing a wedding cake for a same-sex couple as an endorsement of same-sex marriage, rather than a reflection of its desire to conduct business in accordance with Colorado’s public accommodations law.”