Day by Day Cartoon by Chris Muir

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Does the Constitution Force Bakers to Bake?

From the American Thinker Blog:

The article argues that the Baker's 1st Amendment Right was not violated when forced to bake a cake for the gay couple, but the 13th. the 13th Amendment, Section 1, reads:
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.
From the article:
This being noted, it seems that Administrative Law Judge Robert N. Spencer has ordered Mr. Jack Phillips into a condition of involuntary servitude. Apparently Judge Spencer did not find Mr. Phillips guilty of a crime, as required in the 13th Amendment, yet ordered that he do work for the plaintiffs anyway.

In other words, the actual ruling requires the baker to bake the cake or face fines and potentially jail time. That sounds a lot like coercion to most people.

There are three possible ways for Mr. Phillips to deal with this situation.

Obviously, the first way would just do what the judge told him to do and bake the cake.

The second is to agree to bake the cake, but unless the judge also specified the retail price of the cake, establish a price for the gay couple's cake of, just to pick a number, $10,000. If they are willing to pony up the ten grand, take the money, and donate it to the church. I'm pretty sure God would understand.

Finally, bake the cake, but make it the most unattractive cake imaginable. Or in a related case, take the photos, making sure that none are in focus, or that they capture the most unattractive facial expressions possible. You can be pretty sure that the plaintiffs would not be sending more gay couples your way with rave reviews of your work.
Personally, I'm torn between the 2nd or the 3rd choice. My first instinct is to go with option 3 to stick a big middle finger to to those who forced me to bake a cake, against my convictions. BUT that may damage my business, so I think option 2 works the best and I would go with $50,000. The Judge can't force a price on me. Well, at least not yet.

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