Category: Product Liability

October 1, 2014
by John Kaempf

RELIGIOUS DEFENSES TO CLAIMS CONCERNING SEXUAL ORIENTATION DISCRIMINATION – WHY THE “SWEET CAKES BY MELISSA” DISPUTE IS DIFFERENT

Oregon received national media attention earlier this year when its Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) announced in a January 2014 press release that a Gresham bakery violated the civil rights of a same-sex couple when it denied them service based on their sexual orientation.  The couple filed a complaint against “Sweet Cakes by Melissa” under the Oregon Equality Act of 2007, a law that protects the rights of gays, lesbians, bisexual, and transgender Oregonians…