Trump Administration Sides With Baker in Same-Sex Wedding Cake Case

The Justice Department has urged the Supreme Court to side with a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in a high-profile anti-discrimination case. Acting Solicitor General Jeff Wall reportedly sent the Supreme Court a friend-of-the-court brief to offer advice on the case Thursday. The brief argued that forcing the baker, Jack Phillips, to “create expression for and participate in a ceremony that violates his sincerely held religious beliefs invades his First Amendment rights,” CNN reports. Phillips refused to sell a same-sex couple a wedding cake in 2012 on the grounds that it went against his religious beliefs. The subsequent legal battle saw most lower courts side with the couple, citing a state anti-discrimination law. Steve Vladeck, CNN’s Supreme Court analyst, called the Justice Department’s advice “unusual.” “It’s practically unheard of for the Justice Department to argue in favor of a constitutional exemption to anti-discrimination laws—a constitutional right to discriminate,” Vladeck said.