Equality Groups Sound Alarm on Cakeshop Discrimination Case

The conservative-leaning Supreme Court will hear oral arguments Tuesday in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Amid the daily headlines about sexual harassment and our unhinged president, the case and its possible repercussions have received scant attention.

Colorado baker Jack Phillips refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex couple back in 2012, a refusal that put him in violation of a Colorado law banning discrimination based on sexual orientation. Phillips sued and now the Supreme Court will weigh in on whether he has a legal right to turn away LGBT people because they conflict with his "sincerely held religious beliefs." The antigay Justice Department has filed an amicus brief supporting Phillips.

Equality groups like the Movement Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, Color of Change, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, the Anti-Defamation League, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, the National Black Justice Coalition, the National Center for Transgender Equality, the Human Rights Campaign, GLAAD, and Freedom for All Americans are trying to remind Americans of what's at stake with the Cakeshop case. They've teamed up to launch the Open to All campaign, highlighting the dangerous precedent of legalized discrimination in the name of religion.

"The Open to All campaign is about raising awareness of the enormously high stakes in the Masterpiece case. A ruling that gives businesses a constitutional right to discriminate would have implications that reach far beyond bakeries," Ineke Mushovic, executive director of the Movement Advancement Project, said in a statement. "If the Court carves out a broad exemption in nondiscrimination laws for so-called 'creative' enterprises, we could see an explosion of discrimination by restaurants, hair salons, event venues, funeral parlors and more. And the impact of such a decision wouldn't be limited to LGBT people; it could be used to allow discrimination against people color, women, minority faiths, people with disabilities and others."

On the Open to All website, two ads underscore the stakes:

The Open to All website is full of facts about the Cakeshop case and lists all the friend-of-the-court briefs filed by LGBT-supportive companies and organizations. The website also contains a "Take Action" tab that allows people to share information about the case and sign an ACLU petition urging the Supreme Court to rule against discrimination.