The Supreme Court decided Monday not to hear the case concerning a florist in Washington State who refused to provide flowers for a same-sex wedding. If that sounds a lot like the Masterpiece Cakeshop case out of Colorado, you're not wrong.
In sending the case back to the Washington state Supreme Court, the justices wrote: "The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the Supreme Court of Washington for further consideration in light of 'Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Comm'n.'"
Associate law professor Jim Oleske at Lewis and Clark Law School talked to Colorado Matters about the impact of Masterpiece on the Arlene’s Flowers case, and where it goes from here.
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Unlike with Masterpiece and the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, there are no allegations of bias against the Washington state Supreme Court. That means the Supreme Court didn't conduct any additional review of the case to determine whether the ruling applied, and instead vacated the lower court ruling and sent it back for a second look.
The Washington state Supreme Court will now re-evaluate the case in light of the new ruling, and determine whether that affects the case.
