DENVER (AP) — A Christian baker found to have violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to make a birthday cake for a transgender woman has appealed the ruling to the state appeal appeals court.
In a notice filed Aug. 2, lawyers for Jack Phillips asked the appeals court to review the June ruling by a Denver judge by looking at both procedural issues and whether the ruling violated Phillips’ constitutional rights to freedom of speech and religion.
Judge A. Bruce Jones ruled that attorney Autumn Scardina was denied a cake — blue on the outside and pink on the inside to celebrate what she termed her gender transition on her birthday — because of her transgender status, in violation of the law.
Phillips said he could not make the cake because of its message, but Jones said the case was about a refusal to sell a product, not compelled speech.
Phillips, of Lakewood, Colo., won a partial victory at the U.S. Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple when the high court found the state civil rights commission showed anti-religious bias when it sanctioned Phillips.
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