“Americans Should Not Have to Choose Between Adhering to Their Faith or Closing Their Business, But That’s What This Decision Means”
Likening them to blacks who were denied public accommodation due to their skin color, an Oregon administrative law judge has ruled a lesbian couple was denied their rights when Oregon bakers refused to make a cake for their same sex wedding. See the ruling below.
Here’s the back ground from the Zero:
The controversy began in January 2013 when the [Aaron and Melissa] Klein turned away Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman from their bakery, saying that providing a cake for their wedding would have violated their Christian beliefs against same-sex marriage.
In August 2013, the women complained to the state Bureau of Labor and Industries. The agency conducted an investigation and in January 2014 brought charges that the Kleins had unlawfully discriminated against the couple because of their sexual orientation.
Oregon law bans discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people in jobs and in places that serve the public, such as restaurants and bakeries.
One of the Kleins’ attorneys, Anna Harmon, says the Oregon law boils down to toeing the government line and selling out your faith or losing your business.
The (administrative law judge) recognized that all of the State’s claims but one were baseless and not supported by the facts of the case,” she said in an emailed statement. “We view this as a partial victory. However, the (judge) ruled wrongly that the Kleins’ right not to design and create a work of art celebrating an event which violates the tenets of their religion is not protected by the Oregon or Federal Constitutions. This is a wrong and dangerous result for religious liberty and rights of conscience in Oregon…
Americans should not have to choose between adhering to their faith or closing their business, but that is what this decision means.
The Bureau of Labor and Industries Chief, Brad Avakian, has already telegraphed he’ll rule against the Kleins when he takes up the case in March. The Kleins tried unsuccessfully to get the far left former legislator kicked off the case.
Comment on what you think of the case below.
Aaron and Melissa Klein talked about their business and the fallout of the case with the state of Oregon during the Family Research Center Voter Values Summit recently. In it Aaron presents a dilemma he sees between law and the ability to run a business:
I could understand the backlash from the gay and lesbian community. I could see that; what I don’t understand is the government sponsorship of religious persecution

