Catharine Miller, et al. v. Civil Rights Department

Petitioner Cathy Miller runs a small bakery in Bakersfield, California, where she designs and creates custom wedding cakes. After she declined to design and create a wedding cake for a same-sex wedding ceremony, the State of California began an 8-year civil prosecution against Miller and her bakery, alleging violations of California’s public accommodation laws. Prosecution started after this Court’s grant of certiorari in Masterpiece Cakeshop and continued through its decisions in that case, Fulton, and 303 Creative. After a week-long bench trial, the state trial court ruled for Petitioners under the Free Speech Clause. The state appeals court reversed, holding that this Court’s precedents were inapplicable, that the white, multitiered cake Miller refused to design “conveyed no particularized message about the nature of marriage,” and that the law was generally applicable under the Free Exercise Clause because it did not grant unfettered discretion or exemptions for identical secular conduct. The state supreme court declined review. The questions presented are:

1. Whether the Free Speech Clause’s protection against compelled participation in a ceremony only applies where third parties would view that participation as expressing endorsement of the ceremony.

2. Whether proving a lack of general applicability under the Free Exercise Clause requires showing unfettered discretion or categorical exemptions for identical secular conduct.

3. Whether Employment Division v. Smith should be overruled.