James Shaw from Butler Weihmuller Katz Craig and Chairman of the Legal Panel for the Greater Tampa Chapter of the ACLU was part of a panel in Tampa, FL at the “It’s About More Than The Cake”, an important conversation on the First Amendment and anti-discrimination law.
On December 5, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission. Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop declined to make a wedding cake for a gay couple because of his religious objections to same-sex marriage. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission declared that the denial of service to the couple violated the state’s anti-discrimination law.
The Supreme Court will soon decide whether businesses can refuse service to customers by asserting the owner’s religious liberty and/or his right to be free from compelled speech. Some legal scholars have argued that this case is no different than Jim Crow-era race-based denials of service. Others have insisted that business owners have a right to freedom of association —including the freedom not to associate. Please join us for a spirited conversation involving law and public policy.