An attorney for a same-sex couple who were denied a wedding cake by a California bakery says they’ll continue to fight after a judge issued a preliminary injunction ruling in the baker’s favor Monday.
Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio first spoke out against Bakersfield’s Tastries Bakery in August, claiming the company’s owner, Cathy Miller, turned them away when they told her they were seeking a wedding cake. At the time, Miller didn’t deny the couple’s claims, stating that her Christian faith “will not allow me to participate in things that I feel are wrong.”
In an eight-page ruling on Monday, Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe said Miller could continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, as such confections were a form of “artistic expression” and “expressive conduct” and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
Mireya and Eileen Rodriguez-Del Rio first spoke out against Bakersfield’s Tastries Bakery in August, claiming the company’s owner, Cathy Miller, turned them away when they told her they were seeking a wedding cake. At the time, Miller didn’t deny the couple’s claims, stating that her Christian faith “will not allow me to participate in things that I feel are wrong.”
In an eight-page ruling on Monday, Kern County Superior Court Judge David Lampe said Miller could continue to refuse to make wedding cakes for same-sex couples, as such confections were a form of “artistic expression” and “expressive conduct” and therefore protected by the First Amendment.
