David Harsanyi of the Federalist chides media outlets for misstating the nature of a case heading to the U.S. Supreme Court.
This week, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case of Masterpiece Cakeshop owner Jack Phillips, the man who refused to create a specialty wedding cake for a same-sex couple in Colorado in 2012. … Yet the stories that dominate coverage not only distort the public’s understanding of the case, but also its serious implications.
For one thing, no matter how many times people repeat it, the case isn’t about discrimination or challenging gay marriage. When the news first broke, for instance, USA Today tweeted “The Supreme Court has agreed to reopen the national debate over same-sex marriage.” The headline (and story) at the website was worse: “Supreme Court will hear religious liberty challenge to gay weddings.” Others similarly framed the case. (And don’t worry, “religious liberty” is almost always solidly ensconced inside quotation marks to indicate that social conservatives are just using it as a facade.)
There is an impulse to frame every issue as a clash between the tolerant and closeminded. But the Masterpiece case doesn’t challenge, undermine, or re-litigate the issue of same-sex marriage in America. Gay marriage wasn’t even legal in Colorado when this incident occurred.
So the Associated Press’ headline and story — “Supreme Court Will Decide If Baker Can Refuse Gay Couple Wedding Cake” — is also wrong. As is The New York Times headline: “Justices to Hear Case on Baker’s Refusal to Serve Gay Couple,” which was later changed to the even worse “Justices to Hear Case on Religious Objections to Same-Sex Marriage.”
A person with only passing interest in this case might be led to believe that Phillips is fighting to hang a “No Gays Allowed” sign in his shop. In truth, he never “refused” to serve a gay couple. He didn’t even really refuse to sell them a wedding cake, which they could have bought without incident. Everything in his shop was available to gays and straights and anyone else who walked in his door. What Phillips did was refuse to use his skills to design and bake a unique cake and participate in a gay wedding.