Court upholds $135K penalty against Oregon bakers who turned down order for same-sex wedding cake

The Oregon Court of Appeals had upheld a ruling against Christian bakers who turned down an order for a same-sex wedding cake due to their religious convictions.

Aaron and Melissa Klein, owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa, gained national attention in 2013 after they refused to bake a cake for lesbian couple Rachel Cryer and Laurel Bowman for their same-sex wedding.

After a lengthy court battle, the Kleins were found guilty of discriminating against the two women and have been ordered by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries (BOLI) to pay $135,000 to the lesbian couple.

The Kleins shut down their bakery and appealed the fine, which they already paid in 2015. The money, however, has been held by the Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries throughout the appeals process.

On Thursday, a panel of three judges — Joel DeVore, Chris Garrett and Bronson James — upheld the penalty, but they reversed a decision that said the Kleins violated state law by expressing their intent to turn down orders for same-sex wedding cakes in the future.

Bowman and Cryer celebrated their decision, saying Thursday's ruling affirms "the long-standing idea that discrimination has no place in America."

"All of us are equal under the law and should be treated equally," the lesbian couple said, adding that any ruling to the contrary would "create a sweeping license to discriminate."

In an interview with The Blaze, First Liberty attorney Jeremy Dys, who represented the Kleins, stated that he had hoped the Christian couple would be victorious in affirming American business owners' rights to be "free to live their faith."

Some media outlets have claimed that the Kleins were not fined for refusing to bake the cake, but for publishing the lesbian couple's addresses by posting the filed consumer complaint on a new Facebook page, which only had 17 friends at the time. The Kleins had removed the post after being informed that the document was not redacted.

"I was just notified that the [complainants'] info was on the document I posted. Totally didn't think about that, was a mistake and I apologize. I hope nobody used it for anything bad," Aaron said at the time.

According to Christian News Network, the order from BOLI included a disclaimer that the information of the complainant would become "subject to Oregon's public records law" once the complaint is submitted, which entails that the personal address and phone number that was supplied would able to be seen by the public and the subject of the complaint.

The Kleins, who are now selling their baked goods online, said that they still receive threats against them due to the controversy.

"We still get emails every once in a while out of the blue that are just saying horrible things to us," Melissa said in a previous interview with The Blaze.

Aaron said the negative publicity against them had also affected their children. "It's definitely had its toll on them. We've tried to protect them as much as possible," he said.

Melissa said that she would like to open another storefront bakery in the future, but she believes that it would not be possible to do so in Oregon.