Today Women Lawyers on Guard Inc., along with 39 other organizations, signed on to a brief in the Supreme Court in support of the couple who sued Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. in Colorado. The owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop had refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple, claiming that free speech protections and the owner’s religious beliefs permitted him to refuse service to this couple.
The brief (prepared by the National Woman’s Law Center) argues that allowing a business to disregard non-discrimination protections in the name of religion or free speech will also impact the civil rights of women and other marginalized groups, enabling people to claim a religious or free speech right to discriminate. The brief is available here: https://nwlc.org/resources/nwlc-submits-amicus-brief-to-the-u-s-supreme-court-in-masterpiece-cakeshop-ltd-v-colorado-civil-rights-commission/.
Women Lawyers On Guard Inc. believes that allowing such discrimination (particularly for entities that are not religious institutions) would drive a large hole through essential legal protections for women and other minority groups.
