In the wake of today’s 7-2 Supreme Court ruling in favor of a religious business owner who declined to bake a designer wedding cake for a same-sex marriage celebration, Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) says she’s “disappointed” by the decision and suggests that under New Hampshire law, there would be a different outcome.

 

 

The Supreme Court ruled that the Colorado state commission that heard the petition from bakery owner Jack Phillips abused his religious liberty by not giving due regard to his claim that participating in a same-sex celebration would violate his religious beliefs. The court also pointed out that the state of Colorado was simultaneously protecting the right of businesses that refused to print anti-same-sex messages with which the business owner did not agree.

Would this case come out differently in New Hampshire? That seems to be Sen. Shaheen’s implication, referencing HB 421 which then-Governor Shaheen signed into law in 1998. That law added “sexual orientation” to the list of groups with special protections against discrimination under New Hampshire state law.

Is Sen. Shaheen saying that people of faith who own New Hampshire businesses– bakers, photographers, calligraphers, etc.– do not have the right to decline to participate in same-sex wedding ceremonies?

If the SCOTUS had ruled against Masterpiece Cakeshop, the owner would have been forced out of business for refusing to comply. Sen. Shaheen finds the fact that he wasn’t “disappointing.”

How many Granite Staters agree?