The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday issued a limited ruling in favor of a Colorado baker who refused on religious grounds to make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in 2012.

The justices voted 7-2 that the Colorado Civil Rights Commission violated the rights of the baker, Jack Phillips, under the First Amendment’s free exercise clause when it found Phillips in violation of the state’s anti-discrimination laws.

The ruling said “the laws and the Constitution can, and in some instances must, protect gay persons and gay couples in the exercise of their civil rights, but religious and philosophical objections to gay marriage are protected views and in some instances protected forms of expression.”

Justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored the court’s landmark decision on gay marriage in 2015, wrote that the decision in Masterpiece Cakeshop v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission was limited to this case only.

“The outcome of cases like this in other circumstances must await further elaboration in the courts, all in the context of recognizing that these disputes must be resolved with tolerance, without undue disrespect to sincere religious beliefs, and without subjecting gay persons to indignities when they seek goods and services in an open market,” he wrote.

Liberal Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.

The case involves Phillips, owner of Masterpiece Cakeshop, who refused to design a custom cake for a gay couple’s wedding in 2012.

Phillips, a Christian “cake artist,” told the couple that while he was happy to sell them other baked goods, he could not bake them a wedding cake because doing so would amount to participating in a religious ceremony to which he objected.

The couple complained to the Colorado Civil Rights Commission and later sued Phillips. The commission and state courts found that Phillips had violated Colorado’s anti-discrimination laws. Colorado is one of 22 states that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Phillips appealed the decision to the Supreme Court, arguing that the state’s anti-discrimination law violated his religious freedom and freedom of expression, both protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, called the court’s decision “devastating,” tweeting that it was a “gravely unfortunate ruling for those who believe in equality in our country.”

Kristen Waggoner of Alliance Defending Freedom, a conservative Christian group that petitioned the Supreme Court on behalf of Phillips, tweeted that the decision “makes clear that the government must respect Jack’s beliefs about marriage.”
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