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Title: The Poor Forgotten Baker
Source: [None]
URL Source: https://www.lewrockwell.com/2021/11 ... ance/the-poor-forgotten-baker/
Published: Nov 10, 2021
Author: Laurence M. Vance
Post Date: 2021-11-10 09:53:53 by Ada
Keywords: None
Views: 543
Comments: 6

Earlier this year, Colorado baker Jack Phillips got in trouble again for exercising what he thought was his right in a free country to discriminate. Some libertarians have been strangely quiet about his plight.

In 2013, Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop in Denver, was accused by Colorado’s Civil Rights Commission (CCRD) of discriminating against a homosexual couple because he refused to bake them a cake for their “wedding.” An administrative law judge found in favor of the couple, and this was affirmed by the Commission. The decision was appealed to the Colorado Court of Appeals, which again affirmed the Commission’s decision in 2015. A petition for a writ of certiorari was filed with the Supreme Court in 2016, and was granted in 2017. The Court, in the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018), in a 7-2 vote, ruled in favor of Phillips because “the Commission’s actions here violated the Free Exercise Clause.”

But the radical left wasn’t done with Phillips.

Soon after the Supreme Court decision, Autumn Scardina—who was born and remains a man no matter how many left-libertarians call him a woman—requested that Phillips bake him a cake pink on the inside and blue on the outside to celebrate his birthday and seventh anniversary of his “gender transition” from male to female.

Phillips refused, so Scardina filed a complaint with the CCRD.

CCRD director Aubrey Elenis concluded that there was probable cause that Phillips had unlawfully denied Scardina “equal enjoyment of a place of public accommodation,” and ordered the two to enter mediation. Phillips, represented again by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), sued the state of Colorado in U.S. District Court in Denver for renewing its “crusade” again him because he again refused to bake a cake that would have violated his religious beliefs.

In March 2019, the state Attorney General’s office announced that it and Phillips’ attorneys had “mutually agreed to end their ongoing state and federal court litigation,” including the CCRD action against Phillips.

So Scardina filed a civil suit of his own in state court.

In June of this year, Denver District Court Judge A. Bruce Jones ruled that Phillips violated Colorado anti-discrimination law by refusing to bake the special cake and fined him $500. (I wonder if the judge would have likewise ruled that a Jewish baker who refused to bake a cake for Nazis in honor of Hitler’s birthday and a seamstress who refused to monogram robes for Klan members violated Colorado anti-discrimination law? Of course he wouldn’t.)

For months now I have been watching carefully the libertarian reaction to Phillips’ recent plight. It is almost non-existent from some quarters. And when the right of Phillips to discriminate is mentioned, it is usually tempered by some statement implying that his beliefs are wrong. As one prominent libertarian said back in June: “You may not agree with Phillips’ beliefs—I don’t—but a liberal, pluralistic society requires tolerance for people of different moral beliefs coexisting without using the state to crush dissent out of one another.”

CDC libertarians are so enamored with the Covid-19 vaccine that they have forgotten about the poor baker. They have been so busy telling us that private businesses have the right to require that their customers wear masks, social distance, and get the Covid-19 vaccine that they have ignored Jack Phillips. Never in their life have they talked as much about the right of businesses to discriminate as they have during the past year. But it is usually always in reference to the right of businesses to discriminate against the unmasked and the unvaccinated.

Since CDC libertarians rarely make an unequivocal case for the absolute freedom of discrimination, let me state the libertarian position on discrimination as clearly and succinctly as I can: Since discrimination—against anyone, on any basis, and for any reason—is not aggression, force, coercion, threat, or violence, the government should never prohibit it, seek to prevent it, or punish anyone for doing it.

The libertarian position on discrimination has nothing to do with racism, sexism, prejudice, bigotry, hate, intolerance, homophobia, or xenophobia and everything to do with freedom.

Anti-discrimination laws are an attack on property rights, freedom of association, the free market, and freedom of thought.

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#1. To: Ada (#0)

Wow quite the article. He's talking small-L libertarianism and something tells me the Libertarian Party wouldn't like his piece very much.

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USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um

NeoconsNailed  posted on  2021-11-10   11:03:29 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#2. To: Ada (#0)

This is the first time I've ever heard about libertarians being brought in on this debate/controversy and I find it quite confusing as libertarians would generally favor the baker, not the couple. The author seems to be greatly confusing libertarians with liberals/leftists.

A central element of libertarianism is that everyone has a right to live as they see fit, that right extending to the boundary where it begins to overlap the same postulated rights of others. Libertarians generally favor the right of workers or business owners to discriminate.

Pinguinite  posted on  2021-11-10   11:28:32 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#3. To: NeoconsNailed (#1)

something tells me the Libertarian Party wouldn't like his piece very much

They wouldn't like it because they would object to the suggestion that the L party would not side with the baker. I believe they would side with the baker without hesitation or debate.

Pinguinite  posted on  2021-11-10   11:30:27 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#4. To: Pinguinite (#3)

What do you know

www.lp.org/freedom-association-piece-cake/

_____________________________________________________________

USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um

NeoconsNailed  posted on  2021-11-10   23:44:28 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#5. To: NeoconsNailed, Pinguinite, 4um (#4) (Edited)

Freedom of association was always kind of a big thing here when Chrissy founded this joint. (Edit) It's on the home page, been awhile.

Neil picked up the mantle after Christine backed away. There's some other folks with an interest keeping the joint running. It's like any other business.

My recent pet project is a 46 y/o man and his 11 y/o daughter that I helped him recover from a drug addled woman recently via a former Marine lawyer. Sling Blade and the Squirt were here tonight while we were outfitting one of my trucks so he can ply his craft until his unit (rig) is repaired.

My hands and back are fucked, but I'm good at standing on the 'money button' and offering advice and broken hands when I can.

The light that burns twice as bright, burns half as long. - Dr. Eldon Tyrell

Godfrey Smith: Mike, I wouldn't worry. Prosperity is just around the corner.
Mike Flaherty: Yeah, it's been there a long time. I wish I knew which corner.
My Man Godfrey (1936)

Esso  posted on  2021-11-11   0:17:51 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


#6. To: Esso (#5)

Didn't know 4um was a business -- I remember Neil gallantly taking the reins from Chrissy (as I think people have called her).

Tell us more about that Marine lawyer. Is Sling Blade a trucker?

_____________________________________________________________

USA! USA! USA! Bringing you democracy, or else! there were strains of VD that were incurable, and they were first found in the Philippines and then transmitted to the Korean working girls via US military. The 'incurables' we were told were first taken back to a military hospital in the Philippines to quietly die. – 4um

NeoconsNailed  posted on  2021-11-11   0:22:39 ET  Reply   Trace   Private Reply  


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