The lawsuit against a Christian baker who refused to bake a “gender transition” cake was dismissed by the Colorado Supreme Court on Oct. 8 in a ruling that left open core questions about discrimination and free speech.
In a 4-3 decision, the court said that it “cannot answer” the underlying constitutional question “because of a threshold issue of administrative law and statutory interpretation.”
The majority held that Autumn Scardina, who requested the cake, should have challenged the Colorado Civil Rights Commission’s handling of the dispute in an appeals court rather than bringing the underlying discrimination claims to a federal district court. Complainants, the court said, cannot “jump” from one legal path to another in bringing claims under the Colorado Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA)….