As opposed to the writing on the wall...
Before I get into this, I want to point out and make very clear, this is the kind of crap that happens when government has too much power. When an administrator or committee gets it into their head about something, a citizen, either inadvertently or on purpose, becomes a target of the government. The government, with its' unlimited resources, can perpetually persecute a citizen until that citizen either capitulates or is destroyed.
If you ever think for a second that Mr. Phillips "had this coming," I pray that you never find out what it's like to have the forces of the government aimed at you, because I promise you will not be so enthusiastic about unlimited governmental power when you are its' target.
Jack Phillips, the owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, might be nearing the end of his journey, with a modestly happy ending. I have written about this before, link 1, link 2, link 3.
The Colorado Civil Rights Commission has abandoned the second lawsuit against Mr. Phillips, now that information of exactly how hostile some of the members of the Commission were towards Mr. Phillips.
In this transcript of a hearing for the CCRC, Diann Rice said this (Page 11, line 25 to Page 12 line 10),
I would also like to reiterate what we said in the hearing or the last meeting. Freedom of religion and religion has been used to justify all kinds of discrimination throughout history, whether it be slavery, whether it be the holocaust, whether it be -- I mean, we -- we can list hundreds of situations where freedom of religion has been used to justify discrimination. And to me it is one of the most despicable pieces of rhetoric that people can use to -- to use their religion to hurt others. So that's just my personal point of view.
I cannot disagree that religion has been the vehicle for people with prejudices to force others to do things they didn't want to do. But freedom of religion? I always thought that freedom of religion meant religions (or the lack thereof) could exist side-by-side without warring against each other. I don't know about Ms. Rice, but my history books talk about the Holocaust as the efforts of a secular leader (and a Socialist) of a country trying to exterminate a particular religion? By the way, this was uttered after SCOTUS' 7-2 ruling in favor of Mr. Phillips.
So, Colorado has surrendered on their effort to destroy Mr. Phillips. In return, Mr. Phillips has ceased his lawsuit against every member of the CCRC, the Attorney General and the Governor. Mr. Phillips comes out on the short end of the stick here, as each side will pay their own legal fees. This means Mr. Phillips has to contend with lower sales because of the persecution by the government and he now likely has tens of thousands of dollars of legal fees he must pay off.
Just in case you never read the facts about this, Mr. Phillips refused to create a custom cake for a same-sex couple for their wedding and a transgender woman celebrating the anniversary of her change. Mr. Phillips offered to sell them cakes that were in stock and offered the names of other bakeries that would be more amenable to their needs concerning custom cakes. Mr. Phillips also doesn't do Halloween cakes and a few others, just in case you weren't clear that all of those things, in his opinion, go against his religious beliefs.