The Daily - Tuesday, Dec. 5, 2017

A baker in Colorado refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple. After he was charged with discrimination, he argued that his First Amendment right to free speech was being violated. The case is now going to the Supreme Court. Guests: Jack Phillips, the baker; Adam Liptak, who covers the Supreme Court for The New York Times. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Duration: 20m
Broadcast on: 05 Dec 2017
Audio Format: other

For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily. Transcripts of each episode will be made available by the next workday.

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Brought to you by the Capital One Saver Card. With Saver, you are an unlimited 3% cashback on dining, entertainment, and at grocery stores. That's unlimited cashback on ordering takeout from home. Or unlimited cashback on tickets to concerts and games. So grab a bite, grab a seat, and earn unlimited 3% cashback with the Saver Card. Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. See CapitalOne.com for details. From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbara. This is the Daily. Today, the infamous case of the wedding cake baker, who wouldn't bake a wedding cake, heads to the Supreme Court. It's Tuesday, December 5th. Jack, tell me about how you got into this line of work that you're in. The art started right off. I was always drawing and painting and that was a natural passion for me. And then when I was in high school, all of my elective classes would have been anything that was available in the art rooms. Jack Phillips owns a bakery in Lakewood, Colorado, just outside Denver. And then after I graduated high school, then I needed a job. So a man that lived across the street from me owned a bakery, and he was gracious enough to hire me. And so after I worked for him for a couple of years, he acquired another bakery and brought in people who did cake decorating. And then I realized that I could put together the baking that I was learning and the art that I'd always loved. And so I knew at that point that at some time in the future, I would open my own bakery and it would be a cake shop where I could create cake with art. And how would you describe the kinds of cakes that you were making at your own shop, Master Beast's cake shop? The cakes that we make, they very sometimes say are very simple, but most of the time people come in and they want to get something really unique and really special and customized. So wedding cakes was one of the things that I wanted to make as a specialty. We grew and were becoming fairly successful and well known across the town. Jack, who came into your cake shop in July of 2012? Two gentlemen came into my shop. They had a folder with them and had my wedding books open. And so I went over and sat down with them, introduced myself, we exchanged names and they said we're here to look for wedding cakes and it's for our wedding. And so I tried to respectfully explain to them that I'm sorry guys, I don't do cakes for same-sex weddings, but I would be glad to sell them anything else that I had in the shop. And they were surprised, you know, what are you talking about? Then they stood up, swore at me and stumped out of the shop immediately, got us as far as we got. You know, when we were mortified and just felt degraded and it was all the words to have Charlie's mom sitting there with us, you know, you don't want your mom to see something like that happen to you. So you know, we pretty quickly got up and we left.

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