“This effectively strips us of all our First Amendment rights”

Discussion in 'Politics' started by JamesL, Jul 3, 2015.

  1. JamesL

    JamesL

    State Silences Bakers Who Refused to Make Cake for Lesbian Couple, Fines Them $135K

    Oregon Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian finalized a preliminary ruling today ordering Aaron and Melissa Klein, the bakers who refused to make a cake for a same-sex wedding, to pay $135,000 in emotional damages to the couple they denied service.

    “This case is not about a wedding cake or a marriage,” Avakian wrote. “It is about a business’s refusal to serve someone because of their sexual orientation. Under Oregon law, that is illegal.”

    In the ruling, Avakian placed an effective gag order on the Kleins, ordering them to “cease and desist” from speaking publicly about not wanting to bake cakes for same-sex weddings based on their Christian beliefs.

    “This effectively strips us of all our First Amendment rights,” the Kleins, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, which has since closed, wrote on their Facebook page. “According to the state of Oregon we neither have freedom of religion or freedom of speech.”

    The cease and desist came about after Aaron and Melissa Klein participated in an interview with Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins. During the interview, Aaron said among other things, “This fight is not over. We will continue to stand strong.”

    Lawyers for plaintiffs, Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, argued that in making this statement, the Kleins violated an Oregon law banning people from acting on behalf of a place of public accommodation (in this case, the place would be the Kleins’ former bakery) to communicate anything to the effect that the place of public accommodation would discriminate.

    Administrative Law Judge Alan McCullough, who is employed by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and was appointed by Avakian, threw out the argument in the “proposed order” he issued back in April.

    But today, Avakian, who was in charge of making the final ruling in the case—and is also an elected politician—reversed that decision.

    http://dailysignal.com/2015/07/02/s...make-cake-for-lesbian-couple-fines-them-135k/
     
  2. A corporation exist to provide a service, this baker is running it more as a hobby instead of a business, by picking his customers, probably for tax reasons. If he was running it as a business he would try and capture his local market, as any business person would.
     
  3. Ricter

    Ricter

    Actually, this couple is still entirely free to speak their mind to their customers and to all levels of government.
     
  4. Silencing any dissent is an important strategy for the gaystapo. Financially ruining those who do not share their agenda is also a core belief.

    But we are the haters. They just want to be loved.
     
    Clubber Lang likes this.
  5. wildchild

    wildchild

    It has nothing to do with freedom of speech. It really has to do with freedom of religion. You can have a bakery and turn gays away left and right and have no issues whatsoever. You can do it as long as you own a Muslim bakery.
     
  6. BSAM

    BSAM

    Brethren, how y'all likin' communism, so far?
     
  7. BSAM

    BSAM

    Land of the __________ and the home of the __________.
     
  8. There is a similarity between Russians and part of the American population: they both hate gays and lesbians.
    It is funny if you watch as non American how things sometimes go in the US:
    some groups are against abortion, against lesbians against gays... But the number of politicians caught in sex scandals are countless. But at the same time every sunday they sit on the first row in church. :confused:
     

  9. Wrong, few Christians are "against gays." What they object to is being forced under state duress to participate in gay ceremonies that they find morally offensive.
     
  10. Ricter

    Ricter

    Jesus would bake the cake.
     
    #10     Jul 4, 2015