WASHINGTON (BP) — The California Supreme Court ruled against a Christian baker on May 29 who said she refused to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple because the union contradicts the biblical principles that govern her business.

The court said Tastries Bakery owner Cathy Miller violated the civil rights of Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-del Rio when she referred them to another baker for a wedding cake in 2017, explaining to them that she only designed wedding cakes for couples whose unions conformed to the biblical definition of marriage between one man and one woman.

Her attorneys at Becket, LiMandri & Jonna LLP, and the Thomas More Society said they will appeal the case to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“As the United States Supreme Court has made clear twice already, creative professionals like Cathy Miller shouldn’t have to choose between following their faith and practicing their art,” Becket senior counsel Adèle Keim said in a press release. “California should have dropped its campaign against Cathy years ago and let her design in peace.”

In the case of California Department of Civil Rights v. Tastries, the state accuses Miller of violating the Unruh Civil Rights Act. Having fought for nearly a decade, Miller first won a temporary reprieve in 2018 from a Kern County Superior Court judge, followed by a win in the county court in 2022. But the California Civil Rights Department won a reversal in the California Fifth District Court of Appeals in 2022, which the state supreme court upheld Thursday, giving her two wins and two losses at the state level.

The California Family Council, a Christian public policy group that has advocated for Miller, said the state has unjustly treated Miller as a criminal, rather than a protected person of faith.

“California’s relentless persecution of Cathy Miller is not just an attack on one woman’s bakery – it’s an assault on the First Amendment and all people of faith,” California Family Council President and CEO Jonathan Keller told Baptist Press (BP). “Our Constitution does not compel artists to express messages that violate their deeply held religious beliefs.

“Cathy has consistently treated all her customers with kindness and respect, offering alternatives when her faith prevented her from creating certain messages. Yet for nearly a decade, state officials have treated her convictions as a crime rather than a protected liberty.”

Keller said he is hopeful the nation’s high court will resolve the issue and once again affirm “the government has no authority to coerce the conscience.”

Among Miller’s written design standards upholding biblical principles, in addition to the biblical definition of marriage, are prohibitions on designs depicting gory or pornographic images, celebrating drug use, and depictions demeaning others. After Eileen and Mireya Rodriguez-del Rio filed their initial complaint, Tastries suffered angry social media posts, death threats and harassing emails and phone calls, the business’ attorneys have said.

Among similar individual religious freedom cases, the U.S. Supreme Court in a 7-2 opinion in 2018 upheld the right of Colorado baker Jack Phillips to refuse to bake cakes for same-sex couples, after a protracted legal battle with the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. But after the ruling, the state resumed the fight on grounds that remained unsettled, with the legal battle only ending six years later.

But in the case of Washington florist Barronelle Stutzman, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear her case, letting stand the state Supreme Court ruling that she was guilty of discrimination. The owner of Arlene’s Flowers in Richland, Wash., had refused to design flowers for the wedding of Robert Ingersoll and Curt Freed, who sued her in 2013.

The lengthy court battles can take a toll on those caught in the middle.

Joe Kennedy, a Seattle high school football coach who had to go to the nation’s highest court to win the right to pray on the football field before games, resigned shortly after his victory that followed a battle of nearly eight years.

(EDITOR’S NOTE — Diana Chandler is Baptist Press’ senior writer.)