Justices Sharply Divided in Wedding Cake Case<br />Later, though, Justice Kennedy said that a state civil rights commission<br />that had ruled against the baker had “neither been tolerant nor respectful of Mr. Phillips’s religious beliefs.”<br />The case, which pits claims of religious freedom against the fight for gay rights, has<br />attracted extraordinary public attention and about 100 friend-of-the-court briefs.<br />He asked a lawyer for the Trump administration whether the baker, Jack Phillips, could put a sign in his window saying,<br />“We don’t bake cakes for gay weddings.” The lawyer, Noel J. Francisco said yes, so long as the cakes were custom made.<br />WASHINGTON — Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, who almost certainly holds the crucial vote in the case of a Colorado baker who refused<br />to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, sent sharply contradictory messages when it was argued Tuesday at the Supreme Court.<br />Justice Kennedy called for “an open and searching debate” between those who opposed same-sex marriage on religious grounds<br />and those who considered such unions “proper or indeed essential.”<br />At Tuesday’s argument, he indicated sympathy for the rights of gay men and lesbians.<br />But Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. said the court’s 2015 decision establishing a constitutional<br />right to same-sex marriage had anticipated good-faith disagreements over gay unions.
