With cake-shop ruling, high court urges respect for both sides

The US Supreme Court today ruled overwhelmingly in favor of a Colorado bakeshop owner who had been punished for refusing to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

Both parties in the case – Jack Phillips, the bakeshop owner, and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, the agency that enforces the state’s anti-discrimination law – warned of the dire consequences of a broad decision favoring either side. So did many of the more than 100 friends of the court who filed supporting briefs. The court’s 7-to-2 decision Monday limited itself to Mr. Phillips’ case, however, siding with the baker but reaffirming the broader right of states to prohibit discrimination against LGBTQ people in the marketplace.

The narrow decision represents the high court’s latest attempt to navigate tensions between the rights of same-sex people to marry and the religious-freedom rights of individuals