BY CHRIS JOHNSON, WASHINGTON BLADE
The Supreme Court has agreed to take up a gay wedding cake case. Photo by Bigstock
On the two-year anniversary of the U.S. Supreme Court's sweeping decision in favor of marriage equality, the court announced Monday it had agreed to review a case in which a Colorado bakery refused to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couples.
The Supreme Court announced in its orders list on Monday it had agreed to take up the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission in the aftermath of the court's periodic conference on Thursday. It takes a vote of at least four justices to grant a writ of certiorari — or agree to take a case — but the names of which justices voted that way isn't made public. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Masterpiece Cakeshop, which was penalized for refusing to sell a wedding cake to a same-sex couple under Colorado's human rights law, it could establish a religious carve-out for denial of services to LGBT people throughout the country. Because the Supreme Court's 2016-2017 term is about to close, a decision from justices won't come any time soon. The court will hear arguments and render a decision in the gay wedding case refusal case during the next term after the summer. The petition for certiorari asking the Supreme Court to take up the case had been sitting before the Supreme Court without action for nearly a whole year. The Supreme Court only agreed to take up the case after the confirmation of U.S. Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, whom LGBT rights supporters opposed out of concern he'd diminish LGBT rights from the bench.
Stay tuned as the Washington Blade continues to report on this story.
