Cathy Miller is a cake artist, faithful Christian, and owner of Tastries Bakery in Bakersfield, California. For over a decade, couples have commissioned Cathy to create custom wedding cakes. In August 2017, two women asked Cathy to design and create a custom cake to celebrate their wedding. After a moment of prayer and reflection, Cathy politely told the couple she could not design their cake because of her religious beliefs about marriage. Cathy then referred the women to another bakery that could provide the cake they wanted, and they abruptly left.
Within two hours, the local media was at Tastries and the bakery began receiving physical threats and fake one-star ratings from all over the country. The threats were so frequent that Cathy’s staff had to stop answering the phone. Tastries received so many abusive and harassing emails that Cathy had to screen them before she would let her staff read them.
The California Civil Rights Department (CRD) sued Cathy in state court to punish her for upholding her religious beliefs. At the beginning of their investigation, the CRD attempted to obtain a restraining order without ever meeting with Cathy, but the restraining order was denied.
Cathy serves all people, including LGBT customers, and has employed LGBT people on her staff. Cathy operates her bakery based on design standards that explain that all designs are to be creative, uplifting, inspirational and affirming. These standards follow Christian principles and are based on Philippines 4:8, which encourages all of God’s children to focus on things that are noble, lovely and praiseworthy. However, Cathy will not create a custom cake with a message that is contrary to her faith.
After a trial in 2022, a Kern County Judge, Eric Bradshaw, ruled in Cathy’s favor, finding that Cathy cannot be forced to design and create custom wedding cakes that violate her faith. However, a California appellate court ruled in February, 2025 that Tastries Bakery had discriminated, violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act, and declining to create the custom wedding cake the couple requested was not protected by the First Amendment.
Cathy is represented by the Thomas More Society and the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. Cathy has appealed this latest decision to the California Supreme Court for further review of the First Amendment provisions under both free speech and free exercise of religion.
