Supreme Court declines to hear Oregon same-sex wedding cake case

June 17 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday refused to hear a case brought by a lesbian couple who sued after an Oregon bakery refused to bake a wedding cake for them citing religious convictions.

The high court sent the case back to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, telling the lower panel to reconsider the case using a similar Colorado case in 2018 as a frame of reference. In that case, the U.S. Supreme Court said Masterpiece Cakeshop was within its rights to refuse to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.

In the Oregon case, the couple, Rachel Cryer and Laurel Cryer, sued Sweet Cakes owners Aaron Klein and Melissa Klein in 2013, when they refused to make the wedding cake. The Kleins said they wouldn't bake the case because same-sex unions went against their Christian beliefs.

The Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries in 2015 ordered the Kleins to pay $135,000 in damages for violating the state's anti-discrimination law. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld that order, and the Kleins appealed to the Supreme Court.