The Supreme Court’s Masterpiece Cakeshop decision was less of a ruling on the First Amendment than on the left’s growing hostility to the First Amendment. The decision isn’t truly meaningful. And it doesn’t make anyone happy.
Except the owner of the cake shop.
Instead the Supreme Court found a fairly broad consensus, not around the protection of the First Amendment, but the importance of the First Amendment. In many ways this was more of a cultural warning than a legal decision. It cautions leftist activists in government that they ought to respect Freedom of Religion. Even if they undermine it.
There were plenty of weaknesses on the Colorado side. Which meant that it was one of the best shots for protecting Freedom of Religion. Instead a faint victory for the idea, but not necessarily the substance, was won in a narrow decision.
We haven’t the last of these battles yet. And future cases are likely to avoid the biased behavior and legal complications of the Colorado case.
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