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?Paxton Fights to Protect Religious Freedom of Couple Being Forced??
to Participate in Wedding That Violates Faith?
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AUSTIN ??Attorney General Paxton has joined an Oklahoma-led cert-stage amicus brief urging the U.S. Supreme Court to hear Klein v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries and protect the religious liberty of a couple being targeted for their faith.???
The amicus brief defends a couple who declined to bake a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding and were then adjudged to have violated Oregon?s public-accommodation law. The Constitution protects individuals from being coerced against their will to use their artistic gifts and talents, such as designing and crafting a wedding cake, to participate in a ceremony that violates their religious beliefs. To force a faithful Christian cake-maker to participate in a same-sex wedding against his faith is a violation of the First Amendment?s guarantee of religious freedom.???
?In sum, if our First Amendment?s religion clauses prohibit a graduating high school senior from being compelled to participate in prayers through standing or sitting silently, surely they also protect citizens from being compelled to participate in religious ceremonies in a much more active and artistic manner,? the brief states. ?Recognizing this truth would enable the protection of a ?good faith? belief held by ?reasonable and sincere people here and throughout the world? contemplated by this Court in Obergefell.??
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To read the full brief, click here.?
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