Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-111diff2_e1pf.pdf
Page Number: 55.0

Cite as:  584 U. S. ____ (2018) 

3 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

do  not  evidence  hostility  to  religion  of  the  kind  we  have
previously  held  to  signal  a  free-exercise  violation,  nor  do
the  comments  by  one  or  two  members  of  one  of  the  four 
decisionmaking  entities  considering  this  case  justify  re-
versing the judgment below. 

I 

On  March  13,  2014—approximately  three  months  after 
the  ALJ  ruled  in  favor  of  the  same-sex  couple,  Craig  and 
Mullins,  and  two  months  before  the  Commission  heard 
Phillips’  appeal  from  that  decision—William  Jack  visited 
three  Colorado  bakeries.  His  visits  followed  a  similar 
pattern.  He requested two cakes 

“made  to  resemble  an  open  Bible.   He  also  requested
that each cake be decorated with Biblical verses.  [He]
requested  that  one  of  the  cakes  include  an  image  of 
two groomsmen, holding hands, with a red ‘X’ over the 
image.  On  one  cake,  he  requested  [on]  one  side[,] 
. . .   ‘God  hates  sin.    Psalm  45:7’  and  on  the  opposite 
side  of  the  cake  ‘Homosexuality  is  a  detestable  sin.
Leviticus 18:2.’  On the second cake, [the one] with the
image  of  the  two  groomsmen  covered  by  a  red  ‘X’
[Jack] requested [these words]: ‘God loves sinners’ and 
on  the  other  side  ‘While  we  were  yet  sinners  Christ 
died for us.  Romans 5:8.’ ”  App. to Pet. for Cert. 319a; 
see id., at 300a, 310a. 

In contrast to Jack, Craig and Mullins simply requested a
wedding  cake:  They  mentioned  no  message  or  anything 
else distinguishing the cake they wanted to buy from any 
other wedding cake Phillips would have sold.

One bakery told Jack it would make cakes in the shape
of Bibles, but would not decorate them with the requested 
messages;  the  owner  told  Jack  her  bakery  “does  not  dis-
criminate” and “accept[s] all humans.”  Id., at 301a (inter-
nal  quotation  marks  omitted).  The  second  bakery  owner