The Colorado Civil Rights Commission announced March 5 that it will dismiss its most recent charges against Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips. In response, Phillips dismissed his federal lawsuit against the state of Colorado. 

“We don’t know for sure why the state decided to [abandon its harassment of Phillips],” said Jim Campbell, Alliance Defending Freedom senior counsel. “But we do know that over the course of the last few weeks we’ve found a lot of additional evidence showing the state’s anti-religious hostility.”

For example, two commission members made public comments supporting the same anti-religious bias that the U.S. Supreme Court condemned in Phillips’ first case, a 7-2 ruling in favor of Phillips’ right to run his business according to his faith.

After that initial victory last June, the state once again targeted Jack for declining to design a cake celebrating a gender transition. 

“Now, what we’re hopeful for is that the state will continue to respect Jack’s religious freedom. … That remains to be seen … but today we got victory, and we’re hopeful that we’ll continue to see that victory last in the future,” Campbell said.