Amicus Brief to U.S. Supreme Court in \u3cem\u3eMasterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Human Rights Commission\u3c/em\u3e

Abstract

On October 30, 2017 the Public Rights/Private Conscience Project, a research initiative of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law at Columbia Law School, filed a brief in Masterpiece Cakeshop. The brief was written in coordination with our colleagues at Muslim Advocates, on behalf of 15 religious minority groups and civil rights advocates. The brief argues that the broad interpretation urged by Masterpiece Cakeshop is bad for religious liberty itself – especially for religious minorities such as Muslims, Sikhs, and other minority religious groups. The Public Rights/Private Conscience Project\u27s position is that the Court’s early religious liberty cases were built on equality principles and that the two are mutually reinforcing values – thus the Court should interpret religious liberty in ways that are equality-enhacing, not equality-diminishing. The Public Rights/Private Conscience Project is Directed by Elizabeth Reiner Platt; Professor Katherine Franke is the Faculty Director of the Project, and Director of the Center for Gender & Sexuality Law