Supreme Court agrees to hear case over same-sex wedding cake

The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to hear a case challenging whether a Colorado cake shop has to make a wedding cake for a gay couple.

The justices are being asked in the case — known as Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights — whether shop owner Jack Phillips has to make a cake for Charlie Craig and David Mullins’s same-sex marriage under Colorado’s public accommodations law.

Phillips claims that requiring him to provide the wedding cake violates his constitutional rights to freedom of speech and the free exercise of religion.

{mosads}Craig and Mullins claim Phillips discriminated against them based on their sexual orientation by refusing to make the cake they requested in 2012, in violation of the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA).

But Phillips said he would bake and sell Craig and Mullins any other baked good, according to court documents. Phillips claimed that decorating cakes is a form of art, that he can honor God through his artistic talents and that he would displease God by creating cakes for same-sex marriages.

Phillips claimed he did not violate CADA because his refusal to serve Craig and Mullins was not because of their sexual orientation.

The Colorado Court of Appeals, however, disagreed and ruled in favor of the couple.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the case next term, which begins in October.

This report was updated at 10:03 a.m.