Baker refuses to make a gender transition cake for a transgender woman

Steve Hopkins

Scardina ordered the cake on the same day the the court said it would hear Phillips’ appeal over an earlier cake ruling

A baker who won a partial Supreme Court victory after refusing to make a cake for a gay couple is now challenging a ruling that went against him over not wanting to make a gender transition cake.

Jack Phillips has refused to make the cakes on religious grounds.

On Wednesday, a lawyer for the baker challenged Colorado’s appeals court to overturn a 2021 ruling concerning an action brought against him by transgender attorney, Autumn Scardina.

In 2017, Scardina placed an order with Phillip’s Denver cake shop for a blue birthday cake with pink filling to signify her gender transition.

Phillips refused the request and told a court last year that he does not believe someone can change genders and would not celebrate “somebody who thinks that they can”, MailOnline reported.

In a ruling in June last year, Phillips was fined $500 – the maximum penalty under Colorado’s Anti-Discrimination Act – after a judge said Scardina was denied a cake in violation of the law.

While Phillips said he could not make the cake because of its message, Denver District Judge A. Bruce Jones said the case was about a refusal to sell a product, not compelled speech.

Phillips’ attorney, Jake Warner, from the conservative Christian legal advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), is now asking the court to overturn that ruling.

Warner is arguing that making his client bake the cake is tantamount to violating his right to free speech, as it contradicts his beliefs.

Phillips famously won a partial victory at the US Supreme Court in 2018 for refusing to make a wedding cake in 2012 for a same-sex couple, Charlie Craig and Dave Mullins.

After winning that ruling, Phillips’ legal representation said they would appeal the second case and accused Scardina of being an activist who set out to “test” the baker.

In a statement, ADF general counsel, Kristen Waggoner, said: “In this case, an activist attorney demanded Jack create custom cakes in order to ‘test” Jack and ‘correct the errors’ of his thinking, and the activist even threatened to sue Jack again if the case is dismissed for any reason.

“Radical activists and government officials are targeting artists like Jack because they won’t promote messages on marriage and sexuality that violate their core convictions,” the statement added.

Waggoner said the case was an example of the justice system being weaponised to ruin those with whom the activists disagree.

Scardina had attempted to order the cake on the same day in 2017 that the US Supreme Court announced it would hear Phillips’ appeal in the wedding cake case, that he eventually won.