A seven-year legal case ended favorably on Oct. 8 for Christian cake designer Jack Phillips after the Colorado Supreme Court dismissed a discrimination lawsuit against him on procedural grounds.

Phillips was first dragged into court in 2012 by Colorado officials over his Christian convictions about what kinds of cakes he chooses to design. This latest lawsuit was filed in 2017 by transgender activist and attorney Autumn Scardina, after Phillips declined to create a custom pink cake with blue frosting intentionally designed to celebrate Scardina’s gender transition.

Since that day, Phillips has maintained that his refusal was based on the message the cake was intended to convey, which conflicted with his deeply held religious beliefs, rather than a rejection of Scardina or any member of the LGBTQ community as a customer.

Phillips and his legal team have argued throughout the case that the First Amendment protects individuals from being compelled to express messages that contradict their religious convictions.

In January 2023, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against Phillips, stating that a cake without any written message does not convey speech and is not protected under the Free Speech Clause. However, the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent landmark ruling in 303 Creative v. Elenis, which affirmed free speech rights, provided renewed optimism for Phillips’ legal team, suggesting that this precedent could strengthen his case.

Phillip’s senior counsel at ADF, Jake Warner, stated, “Free speech is for everyone. As the U.S. Supreme Court held in 303 Creative, the government cannot force artists to express messages they don’t believe. In this case, an attorney demanded that Jack create a custom cake that would celebrate and symbolize a transition from male to female. Because that cake admittedly expresses a message, and because Jack cannot express that message for anyone, the government cannot punish Jack for declining to express it. The First Amendment protects that decision.”

However, the conclusion to the Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Scardina case is, in many ways, anticlimactic.

In 2018, Phillips prevailed in a case against him before the U.S. Supreme Court. The court found that Colorado officials acted with hostility toward Phillips’ faith after they pursued charges against him for not creating a cake for a same-sex wedding.

As ADF attorneys noted, the 2018 high court ruling did not address Phillips’ free-speech rights in declining to express messages that violate his faith. And similar to the earlier case, the Colorado Supreme Court left Phillips’ free-speech rights without resolution, dismissing this most recent case solely because Scardina failed to follow the correct legal procedure when filing the lawsuit. While this particular legal battle appears to have ended, the broader conflict persists, as free speech continues to face challenges, with activists seeking to use the law as a tool to censor and compel Christians.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins posted on X: “The 12-year legal harassment of Jack Phillips by LGBT activists and their allies makes abundantly clear the ‘live and let live’ claims of the Left were lies from the start. Thankfully, Jack stood strong for his constitutional right to live out his faith in the workplace, and Americans everywhere are better for it.”

In a 2024 interview with Decision magazine, Phillips highlighted the importance of First Amendment protections, stating, “I think that Christians and all Americans need to be aware that these fundamental freedoms are in jeopardy. … If they go away, they won’t come back.”

Photo: Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom