by Rvaughn » Fri Dec 08, 2017 10:17 pm
If you've got the time and interest, here is a .
Here is an interesting exchange, that reveals something I have not heard mentioned in any of the reporting. At the time of the incident involved in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case, same-sex marriage was not legal in Colorado. (Apparently the two individuals had been married in Massachusetts.)
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Does it make a difference, was -- was same-sex marriage permitted in Colorado at the time of these events?
MR. YARGER: It was not, Your Honor.
CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Does that make a difference?
MR. YARGER: I don't think it does, Your Honor.
JUSTICE GINSBURG: Would Colorado be required to give full faith and credit to the Massachusetts marriage?
MR. YARGER: Well, it certainly would today, Your Honor.
JUSTICE ALITO: But it wouldn't at the time.
MR. YARGER: No, it wouldn't.
JUSTICE ALITO: It did not at the time. This is very odd. We're thinking about this case as it might play out in 2017, soon to be 2018, but this took place in 2012. So if Craig and Mullins had gone to a state office and said we want a marriage license, they would not have been accommodated. If they said: Well, we want you to recognize our Massachusetts marriage, the state would say: No, we won't accommodate that. Well, we want a civil union. Well, we won't accommodate that either. And yet when he goes to this bake shop and he says I want a wedding cake, and the baker says, no, I won't do it, in part because same-sex marriage was not allowed in Colorado at the time, he's created a grave wrong. How does that all that fit together?
MR. YARGER: Well, Your Honor, again, it -- it -- the decision by this bakery was it wouldn't sell any product -
JUSTICE ALITO: No, that's not right, Mr. Yarger. It is a disturbing feature of your brief because this case was decided on summary judgment, and, therefore, you have to view the facts in the light most favorable to Mr. Phillips. And the only thing he admitted and what was said in the undisputed -- the list of undisputed facts was he would not create -- he was very careful to use the word "create." Is that wrong?
MR. YARGER: That's not incorrect, Your Honor.