The Supreme Court announced it would hold off on deciding whether a Christian couple from Oregon had a constitutional right to defy that state’s civil rights law and refuse to make a wedding cake for the marriage of two women.
Melissa Klein, co-owner of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, in Gresham, Ore., speaks with a customer in February 2013.
Melissa and Aaron Klein refused to make a cake in 2013 for the marriage of two women. Oregon authorities fined them $135,000 for violating the state’s law that requires businesses to provide full and equal service for all customers, without regard to their race, religion or sexual orientation. Four conservative justices dissented in 2015 when the court upheld an equal right to marry for same-sex couples. With Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh having joined the court, there may now be five justices ready to side with religious conservatives on the question of whether their beliefs can override civil rights statutes.
Kavanaugh, his successor, has joined his conservative colleagues in arguing for strengthening religious liberty. Now the court itself is poised to overrule the Scalia opinion. The justices could restore an earlier rule that individuals may seek an exemption from a law if it conflicts with their “sincere religious beliefs.”
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