The Daily Signal - What You Should Know About Jack Phillips' Latest Religious Liberty Case

Episode Date: May 11, 2021

Self-described cake artist Jack Phillips is again at the center of the debate over religious freedom, this time as the defendant in a state trial after being sued for declining to design and bake a cake celebrating a gender transition. "Jack's been in the news for many years," as Jeremy Tedesco, senior counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, told The Daily Signal, referring to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's finding that Phillips, a Christian, discriminated against a gay couple when he declined on religious grounds to make a custom cake to celebrate the two men's marriage. Phillips, whose Masterpiece Cakeshop is in Lakewood, Colorado, took his case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "In 2018, the Supreme Court said that Colorado had engaged in religious hostility toward Jack. And so he won that case, 7 to 2," says Tedesco, today's guest on "The Daily Signal Podcast." "But then Colorado turned around right after that and considered another complaint against him, this time based on a gender transition cake that someone asked him to create. Eventually Colorado got the message and dismissed that complaint," Phillips' lawyer says, "but then the private citizen involved in filing that complaint filed a private lawsuit against Jack. And so that's why he's in court now." Listen to the full interview on “The Daily Signal Podcast” or read a lightly edited transcript below. We also cover these stories: The Biden administration reverses a Trump administration policy on health care and transgender individuals.  The FBI announces that a criminal gang called DarkSide is behind an attack on the Colonial Pipeline network.  Weightlifter Laurel Hubbard, a biological male, is on track to compete as a woman in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This is the Daily Signal podcast for Tuesday, May 11th. I'm Virginia Allen. And I'm Rachel Del Judas. Jack Phillips is again at the center of the religious liberty debate as he is the defendant in a state court trial that began March 22nd as a result of a lawsuit filed for his refusal to provide a cake celebrating a gender transition. Jeremy Tedesco, Senior Counsel at Alliance Defending Freedom, joins me on the Daily Signal podcast to discuss the latest in Jack's case. Don't forget, if you're enjoying this podcast, please take a moment to leave us a review or a five-star rating on Apple Podcasts. And as always, please encourage others to subscribe.

Now, on to our top news. The Biden administration is reversing a Trump administration policy related to health care and transgender people. The policy reversal will now make health care providers and hospitals face sanctions if it's determined they discriminated based on sexual orientation and gender identity. per the Hill. Conservatives are concerned this new policy will force religious hospitals to perform transgender surgeries despite their employees' beliefs on gender. In his statement, Emily Gow, director of the Heritage Foundation's DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society, said, it is wrong to force a medical professional to do harm. Multiple federal courts have agreed and blocked this rule from going into effect. Medical professionals should be able

to operate according to the scientific truth that there are two sexes and not be coerced into violating the professional judgment based on radical academic theories about gender. This decision by the Biden administration needlessly and dangerously politicizes medicine and threatens the conscience rights of medical providers. Ryan T. Anderson, author of When Harry became Sally, tweeted, has any trans-identified person been denied COVID treatment? Or is this about mandating sex reassignment procedures. Alfonso David, president of the human rights campaign, said in a statement, LGBTQ people undeniably deserve access to the health care they need, and the Biden administration's decision to enforce these non-discrimination protections will ensure no hospitals, clinics, or other

federally funded health care program can deny someone care simply because of who they are. The FBI announced Monday that a criminal gang called Darkside is behind the attack on the Colonial Pipeline Network. Last week, the criminal group initiated what is known as a ransomware attack on the Georgia-based company Colonial Pipeline. A ransomware attack typically paralyzes a network by encrypting the network's data, in turn, locking the computer system. Attackers usually then make a ransom demand to unscramble the data. The company announced on Friday that they were shutting down 5,500 miles of pipeline in an effort to contain the security breach. The pipeline carries gasoline and jet fuel from Texas to the northeast and provides about

45% of the East Coast fuel supply. The criminal group Darkside says it donates a portion of its ransom money to charity. The Biden administration has loosened restrictions on the transportation of petroleum products by truck in order to prevent disruption in America's fuel supply. Colonial pipeline released a statement on Monday saying, while this situation remains fluid, and continues to evolve, the Colonial Operations Team is executing a plan that involves an incremental process that will facilitate a return to service in a phased approach. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is saying that President Joe Biden's $800 billion infrastructure plan is reasonable. Here is what McConnell had to say about the package with

Kentucky Educational Television via the recount. The proper price tag for what most of us think of as infrastructure is about $6 to $800 billion, which Shelleymore Capito of my conference has put together and recommended as a bill that's related to the subject. What we've got here, however, is what could best be described as a bait and switch, called infrastructure, but much bigger with a whole laundry list of other things, plus, plus completely revisiting the 2017 tax bill. Biological male weightlifter Laurel Hubbard appears to be on track to compete as a woman in the Tokyo Olympic Games this summer. The 43-year-old weightlifter first competed as a man before transitioning in 2013.

The International Olympic Committee guidelines allow biological men to compete as women, provided their testosterone levels are maintained below a certain level for at least 12 months before the competition. Former Olympic weightlifter Tracy Lambricks told TVNZ that she is quite disappointed for the female athlete who will lose out on that spot. And she added that we're all about equality for women in sport, but right now that equality is being taken away from us. I've had female weightlifters come up to me and say, what do we do? This isn't fair. What do we do? Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do because every time we voice it, we get told to be quiet.

Now stay tuned for my conversation with Jeremy Tedesco on the latest with Jack Phillips case. Do you have an interest in public policy? Do you want to hear some of the biggest names in American politics speak? The Heritage Foundation hosts webinars called Heralds. Heritage Events Live. These webinars are free and open to the public. To find the latest webinars and register, visit heritage.org slash events. We're joined on the Daily Signal by Jeremy Tedesco. He's Senior Council at Alliance Defending Freedom. Jeremy, it's great to have you on the daily signal. Thanks for having me on. I appreciate it. Well, for those who follow the issue of religious liberty,

Jack Phillips is again at the center of this debate. And a defendant, he's now a defendant in a state court trial that began March 22nd. Can you tell us about this latest development? in his fight for religious liberty. Sure, well, Jack's been in the news for many years, even when a case at the U.S. Supreme Court on this issue, right? In 2018, Supreme Court said that Colorado had engaged in religious hostility towards Jack. And so he won that case, 7 to 2, but then Colorado turned around right after that and considered another complaint against him, this time, based on a gender transition cake

that someone asked him to create. Eventually, Colorado got the message and dismissed that complaint. But then the private citizen involved in filing that complaint filed a private lawsuit against Jack. And so that's why he's in court now is defending against that private lawsuit. And I think it's important for your listeners to understand that this was a setup that the person who called Jack and asked him to create this cake was trying to set him up to be able to file a complaint against him, to harass him, and to put him out of business, or at least cause that risk. And so Jack continues to try to defend his First Amendment freedoms and Alliance Defending Freedom, where I work, continue to represent him in his fight. When it comes to this case and this gender transition cake and the setup,

what kind of arguments have you used and are you using to kind of flush this case out and, you know, talk about it in terms of religious freedom and his rights? Sure. Well, the bottom line is Jack serves everyone at his shop. He just doesn't create every cake or celebrate every message through his art. And so Jack does not create cakes that promote ideas that violate his religious convictions. And he's got a First Amendment right of free speech to decline. to express messages that violate his beliefs through his art. And that's, of course, the same for everybody.

If an atheist was forced to create a billboard saying there is a God, the state couldn't force that atheist to do that through any kind of law that the state was trying to enforce against them, or a private citizen was trying to enforce against them. So these are rights that we all benefit from. And I think the biggest risk in the case, not just for Jack, of course, we don't want him to lose the case, but for society is that if one person loses these rights, everybody does. We don't want a government that has the power to force people

to express ideas that violate their core convictions. What does it have to say in your perspective about where we're at in this country right now where we're being forced to create art that doesn't go with our deeply held convictions and people are losing jobs and livelihoods over this? Well, you know, the fact that people are trying to go after something as sacred as artwork, as sacred as the creative process, I mean, you have to understand for artists like Jack, it's a deeply personal, creative act to take a concept and then create something beautiful expressing that message. And so, you know, artistic expression has always been fully protected by the First Amendment precisely because of how sacrosanct that creative process and that expression is.

And so if we're at a place in society where we're willing to force artists to create art that violates their core convictions, I mean, the rest of us are in a lot of trouble. I think artists have one of the strongest claims to that right. Now, we all have a strong claim to it, but that creative, unique creative process being forced to design and create something that's not even in your mind and have a government, you know, kind of hanging over you with significant penalties, if you don't do what they're telling you to do or what some private party wants you to do, that's not a place we want to go. That's not a free society. Well, you were part of the team, as you mentioned earlier, that defendant in Jack Phillips at the Supreme Court, on a more personal note for you, what was it

like to be part of and really at the center of the religious liberty debate in this country. That's a big deal. Yeah. It's incredibly exciting to be a part of it. But I got to tell you, the best part of it is the clients. So Jack Phillips, just getting to know Jack, he is one of the best people I have ever met. I always tell people that, you know, they would be lucky to have him as a neighbor and just blessed beyond belief to have him as a friend.

When I went to his shop, it was blown away by the way that he cared for all of his customers. I mean, literally everybody who came into his shop, he was on a first name basis with. And if he wasn't, he would be by their second visit to the shop. He's just the nicest, most kind guy. It's such an honor to represent people like Jack. And, yeah, to be part of these religious liberty battles, the litigation to try to protect religious freedom is incredibly rewarding. But the most rewarding part is serving people like Jack Phillips.

Big picture. What's your perspective on this? the state of religious freedom in this country right now as we see it? Well, I think there's significant threats. There's open hostility. And it's not just from a new administration that certainly is promoting a lot of policies that threaten religious freedom, threaten women and girls. But there's also an enormous move to try to weaponize other institutions in our culture

against free speech and religious freedom, essentially to turn as many institutions as possible in the tools of cancel culture. And one of the ones that's great concern to us that Alliance Defending Freedom is corporations. And left-wing activists have really weaponized corporate America against ideas that the left opposes. And that has enormous ramifications for our society. I think especially when you consider Amazon censorship of books, Amazon has 53% of the book selling market, generally speaking. They have 80% or so of the e-book market.

And so when Amazon decides not to sell a book, it basically renders that book and the ideas expressed in it unsellable. You mentioned the Biden administration. Are there one or two different big challenges you see in the years coming ahead where you feel like we're really going to see big fights in these specific areas? Absolutely. I think, you know, the Equality Act is a significant concern. If the Equality Act were to be passed or even provisions of it be forced through regulations or executive orders, then you're going to have religious institutions, women and girls, free speech at risk. You just consider female athletes who are being forced to compete against biological males.

And our clients in Connecticut, good example, are losing races to them, losing scholarship opportunities to them. And it's just, it's, you know, undermining the fair playing field that women deserve when it comes to sports. In Connecticut, 15 of the state championships that used to be held by women are now, held by these two biological males who identify as women. And so they're being boxed out of their entire sport. We've talked about this a little bit, but my next question was specific when it comes to schools. How do you see schools being affected by the issue of religious freedom? We've talked about the gender debate, but are there other ways you're seeing schools are especially targeted? Absolutely. Religious colleges and even religious K-12 schools are going to be under significant

pressure from the Biden administration and from activists on the left to abandon their religious beliefs is the price to being able to continue to operate. There's a lawsuit that was recently filed by an organization. Their acronym is REAP. And they're trying to eliminate a religious exemption in Title IX for religious colleges and universities that has existed for decades and protects religious freedom. And so, you know, the sad truth is, is that left-wing activists want to eliminate religious freedom. They want to eliminate any instances in law where the laws are respecting the right of religious organizations to organize around their own beliefs. And so, you know, that is upon us right now. And we actually filed an intervention motion in the lawsuit that

reaped filed against the Department of Education. And, you know, we're continuing to resist efforts to remove these religious exemptions, which are essential to religious institutions being able to operate. What about churches? Where do you see them being affected by issues of religious liberty and attacks on that? Yeah. Well, you know, the limitations on churches come from a lot of different places. It's going to come from employment laws. The left is going to try to use those employment laws to limit the ability of churches and religious institutions to hire on the basis of their religious beliefs. But I think churches also have to be worried about their public witness and whether they can express their messages. We were talking about it

before, but the broader context of the way that the entire corporate sector is being weaponized against religious and conservative values. You know, it won't be that long if the left has its way until churches aren't able to express their views about marriage or the real difference between men and women on social media platforms. So if you can't bear witness to the truth in all these settings, then you know, you can't change hearts and minds. You can't win the culture over. When it comes to churches, I wanted to ask you about the whole situation we've seen in the past year with different COVID restrictions. And for example, in California, we saw a strip club that was allowed to stay open, but the churches had to stay closed. Is there a double standard? And what's your

perspective on what happened over there. Yeah, absolutely. There's a double standard, and you see a lot of these cases where we're winning and other organizations are winning cases. It's where the government has decided to value secular activity over religious activity. And so, you know, one of the cardinal rules is that if the government has exemptions in their law for secular conduct, secular behavior, that's similar to what the religious institutions want to engage in, then they can't treat the religious institutions differently. and less favorably.

And so, you know, you've seen the Supreme Court on a couple different occasions step in and write the ship when it comes to that where, you know, casinos or, like you said, strip clubs or big box stores are allowed to operate much more freely than churches. And I think, you know, obviously the Supreme Court is doing the right thing there. We need to have robust religious protections. And people need to go to church. People need their community, especially their religious community during these kinds of times for the support, you know, both spiritually and materially to meet the needs that they have during

a pandemic like this. Well, lastly, what would you encourage the average American do to work for religious liberty? I know there's probably a lot of people that are involved and then there's some people that think, well, there's nothing I can do. What would you encourage them to do? Yeah, I just think people need to continue to talk about why it's important with their friends and their family and whoever is in their network of influence. You know, there's a tendency to, I think, you know, not want to push back on some of the cultural, you know, touch points and in difficult areas to have conversations.

But people need to equip themselves on how to talk about gender identity, how to talk about the importance of free speech and, you know, the right of religious institutions to operate consistent with their faith. And make the case. I mean, we can change, you know, the hearts and minds of the 5, 10, 15 people that are within our, you know, core universe of influence. if we all do that, we make a huge step forward for everybody. Well, Jeremy, thank you for joining us on The Daily Signal. It's been great having you with us. Thank you. And that'll do it for today's episode.

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