Following a five-year legal battle that drew national attention, a California judge has ruled in favor of a bakery owner who refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple because it violated her religious beliefs.
Kern County Superior Court Judge J. Eric Bradshaw ruled Friday that Catherine Miller, owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, acted lawfully while upholding her Christian beliefs about what the Bible teaches about marriage, court document show.
The California Department of Fair Housing and Employment sued Cathy’s Creations Inc., doing business as Tastries Bakery, on Oct. 17, 2018 claiming Miller intentionally discriminated against the couple and violated California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act.
During a visit to the bakery in August 2017, Miller declined creating the cake for Eileen and Miyera Rodriguez-Del Rio before referring them to a different bakery, Bradshaw wrote in his nearly two-dozen page ruling.
At the time of the denial, court papers show, the couple were already married, but were planning a wedding “with lots of guests” and their “to-do” list included buying a three-tier white wedding cake.
Her attorneys argued her right to free speech, and free expression of religion trumped the argument that she violated the anti-discrimination law.
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The decision was welcomed as a First Amendment victory by Miller and her pro-bono lawyers with the conservative Thomas More Society.
“I’m hoping that in our community we can grow together,” Miller told the Bakersfield Californian after the ruling. “And we should understand that we shouldn’t push any agenda against anyone else.”
Miller, who created Tastries in 2013, told the outlet she never meant to hurt anyone but that she could not make the cake because it meant she would participate in the couple’s same-sex marriage.
“I’m hoping that in our community we can grow together,” she said, “and we should understand that we shouldn’t push any agenda against anyone else.”
The plaintiff in the case, the DFEH, said through a spokeswoman only that it was aware of the ruling but had not determine what to do next.
Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio indicated she and her wife expect an appeal.
“Of course we’re disappointed, but not surprised,” she said. “We anticipate that our appeal will have a different result.”
An earlier decision in Kern County Superior Court also went Miller’s way, but it was later vacated by the 5th District Court of Appeal, which sent the lawsuit back to the county.
The decision comes on the heels of a Colorado baker challenging a ruling he violated that state’s anti-discrimination law by refusing to make a cake celebrating a gender transition. The baker, Jack Phillips, separately won a partial U.S. Supreme Court victory after refusing on religious grounds to make a gay couple’s wedding cake a decade ago.
Contributing: The Associated Press.
Natalie Neysa Alund covers trending news for USA TODAY. Reach her at nalund@usatoday.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.