An appellate court has ruled against Bakersfield’s Tastries Bakery in a lawsuit over its refusal to sell a wedding cake to a lesbian couple from Kern County.
The appellate court’s decision on Tuesday overturns a ruling from a Kern County Superior Court Judge.
The backstory: In 2017, Tastries refused to sell a white cake to a lesbian couple for their wedding, instead referring them to another bakery.
- The California Civil Rights Department filed a lawsuit against Tastries the following year, and in 2022 a Kern County judge ruled that Tastries did not violate the state’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
- The Kern County Judge found that Tastries referring the couple to another bakery constituted full and equal access under the Unruh Civil Rights Act.
The big picture: The Fifth District Court of Appeals, based in Fresno, ruled that Tastries’ policy to not serve same-sex couples cannot be applied until the same-sex status of a couple is identified, which is a distinction based solely on sexual orientation.
- The court also found that the referral to another bakery did not satisfy the Unruh Civil Rights Act’s full and equal access requirement, saying the initial ruling would allow businesses to refuse service to anyone as long as there is another business in existence that does not object to providing the requested service.
- Further, the appellate court ruled that Tastries’ refusal was not protected expression under the free speech guarantee in the Constitution.
- “A three-tiered, plain white cake with no writing, engravings, adornments, symbols or images is not pure speech,” the ruling reads. “Nor can the act of preparing a predesigned, multi-purpose, plain white cake – an ordinary commercial product, – and delivering it prior to the wedding constitute the symbolic speech of the vendor.”
What we’re watching: Tastries will appeal the case to the California Supreme Court, according to the Bakersfield Californian.
What they’re saying: “This decision upholds the longstanding principle guaranteeing all Californians full and equal access to services and goods in the marketplace,” said Civil Rights Department Director Kevin Kish in a statement. “I commend Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-Del Rio for their commitment to this core civil right. No matter who you love, where you come from, or who you are, you are protected against discrimination.”
- “For seven years, California has sought to crush [Tastries owner] Cathy [Miller] and her family just because she wants to run her business in accordance with her faith in God. The court’s decision today allows those attacks to continue, but we will continue to fight for Cathy,” wrote Becket Fund for Religious Liberty Vice President and Senior Counsel Eric Rassbach.
