For six years Masterpiece Cakeshop has been fighting against the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and the couple who brought the original complaint against Jack Phillips and his business. This afternoon, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission caved.

The state of Colorado and Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips have mutually agreed to end ongoing state and federal court litigation, the Colorado Attorney General’s Office said Tuesday.

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission will dismiss administrative action against Phillips, and Phillips will withdraw his federal court case against the case.

“After careful consideration of the facts, both sides agreed it was not in anyone’s best interest to move forward with these cases, Attorney General Phil Weiser said.

“The larger constitutional issues might well be decided down the road, but these cases will not be the vehicle for resolving them. Equal justice for all will continue to be a core value that we will uphold as we enforce our state’s and nation’s civil rights laws.”

The commission voted unanimously to dismiss the case against Phillips.

As we wrote here, the Supreme Court held that the Commission had exhibited unlawful hostility towards Jack and his business.

ADF represented Jack all the way up to the Supreme Court. And finally, in June 2018, Jack got the justice he deserved. The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in Jack’s favor – rebuking Colorado for its “clear and impermissible” hostility toward Jack’s religious beliefs.

Needless to say, the couple who filed the complaint were NOT amused.

Nor was the Colorado Commission on Civil Rights. This is what happened literally on the heels of the Supreme Court decision. 

Soon after the Supreme Court ruled in Jack’s favor, Colorado announced that it would be pursuing another complaint against Jack.

This complaint came from a local attorney in Colorado. On the same day that the Supreme Court announced it would be hearing Jack’s first case, that attorney called Jack’s shop to request a cake that was designed blue on the outside and pink on the inside to reflect and celebrate a gender transition. Jack’s shop declined due to his religious belief that God creates us male or female – and that we don’t get to choose or change that.

It was not a message Jack felt he could communicate in good conscience. Not to mention that a cake celebrating a gender transition is a category of cakes he has never created for anyone.

Instead of acknowledging this and dismissing the complaint against Jack, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission decided to use it as another opportunity to target him. This is not surprising because evidence of the Commission’s hostility toward religious freedom – Jack’s in particular – is overwhelming.

One of the commissioners called Jack a “hater” on social media. And two other commissioners voiced their support for comments that a previous commissioner, Diann Rice, made in 2015. Those comments, which the U.S. Supreme Court sternly condemned in its ruling in favor of Jack, called religious freedom “a despicable piece of rhetoric.” The evidence of anti-religious hostility is so strong that in a discussion with a Colorado state legislator just a few months ago, one of the Commission’s own members expressed the belief that “there is anti-religious bias on the Commission.”

Yet, they persisted. Until now. Until finally someone got a lick of sense and realized that they were barking up the wrong tree. Until finally someone realized that the Commission as a whole, and the state of Colorado were setting themselves up for another smackdown by SCOTUS.

Of course, there are folks out there throwing tantrums.

Let all of #Colorado choose not to utilize #MasterpieceCakeshop services and that "#Christian" owner Jack Phillips be held accountable by his God for hatred and burn in whatever hell he fears and believes in. #CoPolitics

— Russell A Dale (@goflight001) March 5, 2019

Bigotry reigns

— Austin Stevenson (@AustinStevensMI) March 6, 2019

The tantrums will continue I’m sure until someone somehow makes sure the law bends to the politically correct. But for now, finally, Jack Phillips and his business can step out from under the cloud that has been hanging over them for six long years.

For those who want to read the official court documents, the links are below.

Here are the official court documents.
– Joint Stipulated Notice of Dismissal: https://t.co/0fFMQ8otMk
– Order dismissing with prejudice: https://t.co/p9NVhAsQSv #MasterpieceCakeshop #LGBTQ https://t.co/mYh9dmwV8D

— Equality Case Files (@EQCF) March 5, 2019

Legal Insurrection’s William Jacobson has a terrific synopsis of the rulings here. 

The Colorado Civil Rights Commission was in the wrong from the very beginning and their discrimination cost Masterpiece Cakeshop years of business.

This was a step in the right direction on multiple levels, most importantly for our First Amendment rights.

Feature Photo Credit: Alliance Defending Freedom photo via LCMS.org, cropped and modified