Last week, the Colorado Attorney General’s office also filed a formal complaint. If the baker loses and continues to refuse service to gays and lesbians, he could be fined $500 per instance — and given up to a year in jail, his attorney claims. Phillips will stand in front of the state’s Civil Rights Commission in September. “We are all entitled to our religious beliefs and we fight for that. But someone’s personal religious beliefs don’t justify breaking the law by discriminating against others in the public sphere,” Mark Silverstein, who directs the ACLU in Colorado, said in an interview with the AP. But Phillips’ attorney, Nicolle Martin, sees it entirely differently. Rather than commerce, she believes the case is predicated upon conscience and personal religious adherence. “It brings it to the forefront. I just don’t think that we should heighten one person’s beliefs over and above another person’s beliefs,” she told the AP. “It would force him to choose between his conscience and a paycheck. I just think that’s an intolerable choice,” Martin added of her client’s choices moving forward.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Jun 2013 14:32:41 +0000
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