Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding, is appealing an order from the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, according to CBN News.
The order requires Phillips to bake wedding cakes for gay couples and to reeducate his staff about the Anti-Discrimination Act. He also is required to file regular compliance reports and document for two years about any customers who were denied service, including the reason for the denial.
The commission said that Phillips violated the state’s public accommodation law that requires businesses to serve customers regardless of their sexual orientation; he has now asked asked the state court of appeals to reverse the ruling.
Phillips was sued by a gay couple in 2012 when he refused to bake a cake for their wedding, citing his religious beliefs. He said that baking the wedding cake would violate the Christian principles by which he runs his shop.
His attorneys claim that the commission’s decision violates Phillips’s First Amendment rights, arguing that bakers should not be forced to express views with which they disagree.