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America’s Future Files Amicus Brief Supporting First Amendment Rights

Florida – October 14, 2022 – America’s Future, Inc., a national leader in the fight to preserve individual rights, promote American values and traditions, and protect the nation’s Constitutional Republic, announced today that it filed an Amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) in the case, Klein v Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Dkt. No. 22-204, supporting the Petitioners’ constitutional rights under the First Amendment free speech and free exercise of religion clauses.

The brief was filed on October 7, 2022 with four other amici nonprofit organizations requesting relief for the Petitioners, Melissa and Aaron Kein, a married Christian couple and owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, a specialty cake shop in Oregon.

The case dates back to 2015, when the Kleins declined to design and create a cake that would celebrate a same-sex wedding, asserting their deeply and sincerely held religious belief that non-traditional marriages, such as same-sex marriages, violate God’s design for the institution of marriages.

Following the Kleins’ decision, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) was notified, and subsequently penalized the Kleins with a fine of $135,000.00 for violating the Oregon Revised Statute 659A.403, a public accommodation law prohibiting refusals of services that are otherwise offered to the public if the refusal is based on “race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status or age.” (The sincerity of the Kliens’ beliefs is not in dispute.)

“Americans’ constitutional rights must be upheld regardless if we agree or disagree with the circumstances in which they are exercised,” said Mary O’Neill, Executive Director of America’s Future. “We believe that the Kleins should not have been placed in a position that compels them to choose between practicing their religious beliefs faithfully or complying with state law. The SCOTUS should rule in their favor and uphold their rights, and we pray that they do just that.”

To read more details about this filing, along with several other briefs filed by America’s Future, please visit our Law & Policy page.

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The First Amendment

On Friday, October 7, 2022, America’s Future along with four other amici nonprofit organizations, submitted an Amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) supporting the relief requested by the Petitioners Melissa and Aaron Kein in Klein v Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries, Dkt. No. 22-204.

Petitioners, Mr. and Mrs. Klein, are a married Christian couple who are the owners of a specialty cake shop in Oregon called “Sweet Cakes by Melissa.” In 2015, the Kleins declined to design and create a cake that would celebrate a same-sex wedding. Asserting their God-given constitutional rights under the First Amendment free speech and free exercise of religion clauses, the Kleins refusal was predicated on their deeply and sincerely held religious belief that non-traditional marriages, such as same-sex marriages, violate God’s design for the institution of marriages. The sincerity of the Kliens’ beliefs is not in dispute.

At some point after the Kleins declined the request for their services, the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) was notified of their declination. BOLI investigated the matter and subsequently penalized the Kleins with a fine in the amount of $135,000.00 for a violation of Oregon Revised Statute 659A.403, a public accommodation law prohibiting refusals of services that are otherwise offered to the public if the refusal is based on “race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, marital status or age.”

The Kleins presented three questions to the SCOTUS in their petition, two of which are easily resolved based upon prior SCOTUS rulings as we note in the brief. The remaining question presented to the SCOTUS by the petitioners, however, we propose the SCOTUS resolve the following variant of the question presented:

“May Oregon sanction individuals who refuse to participate in or facilitate “same-sex” marriages, which they sincerely and deeply believe to be immoral and in violation of their faith and teachings of the Holy Bible, consistent with the First Amendment’s protection of the Free Exercise of Religion?”

Our brief recommends the SCOTUS rule on this crucial constitutional question, which is at the heart of this case.  We prompt the SCOTUS to review their prior rulings speaking to this issue to verify the fatally flawed reasonings that have permitted an intolerable “jurisdictional divide between a citizen’s civil obligations to the state, and his religious obligations to God.”

We argue that “whether the state is free to regulate particular conduct is determined by the original definition of ‘religion’ in the free exercise guarantee itself.”  Our brief looks back at written records from our Framers, particularly James Madison, who was the primary drafter of the First Amendment, in order to assist the SCOTUS with their analysis so there can be a proper resolution to this critical constitutional issue.  Our brief explains,

“As its chief architect, Madison understood (as did Jefferson) that the First Amendment erected a jurisdictional barrier between matters that belonged to church government and matters that belonged to civil government of the state, the latter having absolutely no jurisdiction over duties owed to the Creator which, by nature, are enforceable only “by reason and conviction.”

We, at America’s Future, believe that the Kleins should not have been placed in a position that compels them to chose between practicing their religious beliefs faithfully or complying with state law.