A Christian baker’s refusal to sell a basic three-tiered wedding cake to a lesbian couple violated a California civil rights law and amounted to intentional discrimination, a state appeals court has decided.
The California Fifth Appellate District issued the decision on Feb. 11 in a case brought by the California Civil Rights Department (CRD) against Cathy’s Creations Inc. in Bakersfield, finding that the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act requires businesses to offer equal access to goods and services to protected groups, including same-sex couples.
Although a trial court sided with Tastries Bakery owner Catharine Miller, who holds sincere religious beliefs that marriage should be between a man and a woman, the appeals court found that Miller’s decision not to sell the cake amounted to intentional bias, according to the court’s decision. That is the case even though Miller referred the couple – Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio – to another business where they could obtain a wedding cake, the opinion says.
“Despite that the underlying rationale for the policy is rooted in a sincerely held religious belief about marriage, held in good faith without ill will or malice, the policy nonetheless requires a distinction in service that is based solely on, and because of, the end users’ sexual orientation,” the court said. “The relevant and undisputed facts about the policy and its application here necessarily establish intentional discrimination.”
The defendants’ position that the CRD showed hostility to Miller’s beliefs was not supported by the facts, the court said, and there was no violation of the First Amendment’s free exercise clause.
But Miller’s attorney, Charles LiMandri, said he would continue the fight within the legal system to ensure that her freedom to live according to her faith and do creative work is upheld.