In the decision, the state’s highest court ruled 4-3 to dismiss the lawsuit against the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop filed by Autumn Scardina, a biological male who identifies as a woman.
Justice Melissa Hart authored the majority opinion, arguing that Scardina’s discrimination claim was not properly processed before the lawsuit against Phillips was filed.
In 2019, Scardina filed a complaint against Phillips and Masterpiece Cakeshop over the refusal to make a pink cake with blue frosting that would celebrate his gender transition.
The suit originally claimed that Phillips violated the Colorado Consumer Protection Act by refusing to make the cake; however, a judge dismissed the claim in March 2021.
In January 2023, a three-judge panel of the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled against Phillips, concluding that the cake “expressed no message” and that “not all conduct constitutes speech.”
Phillips won a U.S. Supreme Court case in 2018 that centered on his refusal for religious reasons to bake a wedding cake that celebrated a same-sex marriage in 2012 when such unions were not legally recognized in Colorado.
In this latest ruling, the court did not consider the merits of the plaintiff’s claim or whether Masterpiece’s conduct was protected under the first amendment.