OPINION:
For nearly a decade, California has been flagrantly and unflinchingly ignoring the First Amendment, with officials thumbing their noses at religious liberty for the sake of instilling, mandating and strong-arming people into embracing oppressive, secularist ideology.
It’s almost unfathomable to consider that Cathy Miller, a kind, compassionate Christian baker, has been forced to spend years fighting for basic constitutional rights — the freedom to operate her business according to her sincerely held faith.
Ms. Miller believes her Bakersfield-based bakery, Tastries, is “God’s business” and seeks to honor her Christian ideals in everything she does, including creating delicious treats.
When she started out in business, she very clearly laid out what she would be willing to create and the types of products she would avoid, which is where she ran into trouble.
Over the years, Ms. Miller declined to create custom orders that were pornographic, celebrate violence or drug use, or violate her conscience in other notable ways. The baker, who believes marriage is between one man and one woman — a reflection of the traditional biblical view — also made the decision not to create cakes for divorces or same-sex weddings.
It was anything but a ban on serving divorcees or gay individuals, as she has always willingly welcomed these individuals as customers. Rather, it was a decision to avoid taking part in proceedings or nuptials she felt violated biblical principles. Instead, she would often refer these individuals and couples to another baker who has been willing to participate.
Tragically, Ms. Miller was immediately targeted by California officials for deciding to operate her business based on her Christian ideals.
It all started in 2017 after she declined to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. The California Civil Rights Department filed a lawsuit against Ms. Miller, kicking off a near-decade-long legal drama that could make its way to the Supreme Court.
And California, exercising its signature penchant for legal insanity, hasn’t let the case go. After Ms. Miller scored a victory when a Superior Court of California judge ruled she couldn’t be forced to create a cake that violated her sincerely held views, the state appealed.
The California 5th District Court of Appeals then ruled against her, and the California Supreme Court subsequently declined to hear her case. This leaves Ms. Miller with one option: an appeal to the highest court in the land.
“Her next stop is the U.S. Supreme Court,” Adele Keim, Ms. Miller’s lawyer and senior counsel at Becket, recently told me. “Her brief is due at the end of August, and we expect to hear sometime by early next year whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up her case — and we really hope they do.
“It’s just egregious the way that California has decided — one of the biggest population states in the country has decided — that the U.S. Constitution does not protect its citizens,” she said.
While the court battle is certainly unbelievable, the situation has an even darker underbelly as Ms. Miller also has faced a barrage of chaos, hate and horror.
“She has been the victim — and her employees have been the victims — of such intense sexual harassment … and persecution because of her stand,” Ms. Keim said. “So it’s not just that she has been in court for eight years. It’s that every time California files a brief and compares her to … racist barbecue owners in the 1960s, she gets guys calling up the bakery and threatening to rape her … She gets stalkers who call and say, ’I know what you’re wearing. And here’s what I think should happen to you.’”
So in addition to facing potential fines, government mandates that she violate conscience, and a potential end to her wedding cake-making business, Ms. Miller has had to endure almost-endless harassment — an abominable situation perpetuated by California’s insatiable lust for imposing its will on the people.
It’s the sort of horror show the Founders were explicitly trying to prevent when they crafted the First Amendment’s pledge that Congress “shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof” — a proclamation enshrining the freedom of speech, religious liberty and association.
And, yet, in this case, Ms. Miller is being denied these basic rights, with California sending a clear message to Christians and others who buck the secular narrative: your perspective is unwelcome and will be targeted and rooted out.
Fortunately, people such as Ms. Miller are boldly forging on and pushing to protect not only their rights but also the freedoms of other citizens who, if such government malfeasance is left unchecked, will easily become the state’s next victims.
After the Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled in favor of religious liberty, it’s unconscionable that California continues to crusade against common sense. I wouldn’t want a lesbian-owned baker or print shop to be forced into providing a church a service they felt violated their ideals any more than I want Ms. Miller forced into the same scenario.
Let’s hope the Supreme Court forces California to do the right, rational — and constitutional — thing.
• Billy Hallowell is a digital TV host and interviewer for Faithwire and CBN News and the co-host of CBN’s “Quick Start Podcast.” Mr. Hallowell is the author of four books.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.