Heritage Foundation senior fellow Hans von Spakovsky says the Supreme Court could be seeing a lot more same-sex wedding cake cases.
“I think what you’re going to get is a lot more Masterpiece cake case,” von Spakovsky told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”
In a 7-2 ruling, the Supreme Court sided with a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a gay couple based on religious grounds.
The conservative strategist believes the narrow ruling in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case still leaves some bigger constitutional questions unanswered, and predicts similar religious liberty cases will eventually come back around.
“The Supreme Court really made a substantive decision as sent it back to the lower courts…those cases are going to come back,” von Spakovsky told Hill.TV.
But von Spakovsky said he doesn’t think adding another conservative justice will have any impact on landmark marriage equality case, Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.
“That case has been established as precedent,” he said.
But some gay rights activists worry that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement could have a devastating effect on LGBTQ rights.
Even though Kennedy ruled in favor of the baker in the Masterpiece case, he has written every major decision affirming gay and lesbian rights since 1996.
This includes majority opinions striking down both federal and state bans on gay marriage.
— Tess Bonn
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