SCOTUS Punts Again On Gay Wedding Cake Case

NBC News reports:

The Supreme Court declined Monday to decide whether an Oregon baker can refuse on religious grounds to design a cake for a same-sex wedding – a question it carefully sidestepped last year. The case would have given the court’s conservative majority the chance to expand upon its narrow 2018 ruling in favor of a Colorado baker. That decision did not apply beyond the case of Jack Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who the justices said was discriminated against by state regulators.

The new case involves Sweetcakes by Melissa, a custom cake business operated by Melissa and Aaron Klein outside Portland, Oregon. They were fined $135,000 for refusing to serve Rachel and Laurel Bowman-Cryer, who sought a wedding cake for their nuptials. As a result, the Kleins closed shop. Rather than hear the case or deny it outright, the justices on Monday sent it back to a lower court to take its 2018 ruling into consideration. That represented a delaying tactic, saving the Kleins from the six-figure fine for now.

The Kleins, as some of your surely know, raked in several times the amount of the fine via Christian crowdfunding. They paid the fine in late 2015 and their check is to be held until the appeals process is exhausted.