Since 1993 when Jack Phillips opened Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado his goal was to use his God-given talents, skills and experience to create custom expressive cakes that would celebrate some of life’s most special events.
As a small retail business owner, he knew his clientele would range widely in many areas, such as their political views, religious affiliations, sports loyalties, as well as their beliefs about life’s most important issues. But as a follower of Jesus Christ, Jack was committed to gladly serve everyone that came into his shop with equal grace and kindness, regardless of those differences. He was aware that some customers might request cakes that he could not create. Among those requests would be cakes that celebrated messages that he was unable to express. These expressions might include cakes that contained profanity, that were un-American, cakes that celebrated marijuana, or that insulted or denigrated people (even those identified as LGBT). The list also included cakes that celebrated a view of marriage that was against his Biblical of marriage, that God Himself designed marriage to be between one man and one woman.
In July of 2012, when two men came to his shop asking him to create a special cake that would celebrate their same sex wedding, Jack politely declined but tried to let them know that they were welcome in his shop, and welcome to purchase any of his premade products and Jack would also gladly create other custom cakes expressing messages that did not conflict with his beliefs.
The two men left, one shouting obscenities at Jack and flipping him off.
The phone at the cakeshop started ringing a few minutes later with false and hateful comments toward Jack. Many, many more calls came, some containing death threats along with the profanities.
All of this led to the filing of a complaint by the two men to the Colorado Civil Rights Division, and in time the State of Colorado sued Jack in a case that was heard by the United States Supreme Court on December 5, 2017, in Washington DC.
Jack ultimately prevailed in the highest court in the land with the help of Alliance Defending Freedom, but the legal battles were not finished.
The very day that the US Supreme Court announced that they would hear Jack’s case, an activist attorney in Denver called Masterpiece Cakeshop to request a custom cake, pink on the inside and blue on the outside. The attorney said the cake’s design would symbolize and celebrate a ‘gender transition’. Jack informed this attorney that while he would gladly create other custom cakes for this person, even one similarly designed to express a different message, this cake expressed a message that he could not express.
The attorney then filed a complaint with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and a new lawsuit started. While this lawsuit was eventually dismissed, the activist attorney did not give up and soon filed a civil complaint in State court against Jack. After a trial and appeal, that case was finally dismissed in October, 2024.
