Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-CO) is calling on the Department of Justice to investigate the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and its director for harassing Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cake Shop in Colorado.
Phillips was cited by the commission after refusing to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding, leading him to fight his case all the way up to the Supreme Court, which found the Colorado Civil Rights Commission deliberately discriminated against Phillips for his religious views.
“[N]owhere is the assault on religious freedom more pervasive then at the Colorado Civil Rights Commission through their selective application of the law, using it to target viewpoints that contradict their own personal beliefs [sic],” Mr. Lamborn said in a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions last month. “For over six years now, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission has been on a crusade against Jack Phillips because its officials despise what he believes and how he practices his faith.”
“After Phillips defended himself all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won, he thought Colorado’s hostility towards his faith was over,” Lamborn wrote. “Unfortunately, he was wrong.”
Lamborn added, “No one should be bullied or banished from the marketplace simply because their beliefs don’t line up with the government-favored viewpoint.”
“I am asking the Department of Justice to protect the rights of religious Coloradans by ensuring that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission cannot continue its harassment of people of faith in my home state and its attempts to violate their first amendment freedoms.”
Last month, the commission filed another lawsuit against Jack Phillips for not baking a gender transition celebration cake for a local attorney, who just happened to order her cake the same day the Supreme Court agreed to hear Phillip’s case. In response, Phillips, through his lawyers at Alliance Defending Freedom, sued both the commission and its head.