Poll: Most U.S. Voters Defend Baker’s Right to Refuse Gay Wedding Cake

A Rasmussen poll finds 57 percent of likely U.S. voters are upholding a Colorado baker’s right to refuse to provide a cake for a same-sex wedding.

According to the poll, only 29 percent of respondents say the baker should be prosecuted for discrimination, while 14 percent are undecided.

The survey of 1,000 likely voters was conducted on June 26-27, 2017. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95 percent level of confidence.

The poll’s results are revealed as the U.S. Supreme Court has announced it will hear the case of bakery owner Jack Phillips, who, due to his religious beliefs, would not provide a wedding cake in 2012 for David Mullins and Charlie Craig, who said they were marrying in Massachusetts. Phillips told the men he would gladly provide other baked goods for them but could not make a cake that promotes a same-sex wedding ceremony. Subsequently, Mullins and Craig filed a discrimination complaint against him.

“The First Amendment has long protected Americans from being compelled by the government to advocate a message to which one objects,” Family Research Council President Tony Perkins said upon the Supreme Court’s announcement that it will hear the case.

“As Americans, our consensus on religious freedom has historically recognized the God-given right of Americans to live all aspects of their lives according to their faith,” he added. “This is no different today. Attempting to restrict religious conviction to the four walls of a church is not freedom, that is tyranny.”