美国国家公共电台 NPR Supreme Court Seems Split In Case Of Baker Vs. Same-Sex Couple; Eyes Now On Kennedy

Supreme¹ Court Seems Split In Case Of Baker² Vs. Same-Sex Couple; Eyes Now On Kennedy

KELLY MCEVERS, HOST:

One of the most anticipated oral arguments of the year happened today at the U.S. Supreme Court, the case of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for two men who were about to get married. The case could have huge implications for all kinds of businesses. The baker says his First Amendment³ right of free speech and religion exempts⁴ him from antidiscrimination laws. NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg reports.

(CHEERING)

NINA TOTENBERG, BYLINE⁵: Outside the Supreme Court, there was music and theater. A couple of women dressed as bakers⁶ sang a song they composed.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED WOMEN: (Singing) Come to my shop, my Masterpiece Cakeshop. I want to make a wedding cake for men.

TOTENBERG: And there was lots and lots of cheering, chanting and even dancing.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) We got your back, Jack⁷.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Music to my ears.

UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) We got your back, Jack.

TOTENBERG: But for all the sounds of a party, there were tears on both sides when baker Jack Phillips and the gay couple he refused to create a cake for emerged after the court session ended. Phillips choked up as he described the harassment⁸ and difficulties he's faced in his five-year legal battle against the state of Colorado, which has a public accommodations law barring discrimination based on race, gender⁹, religion and sexual orientation¹⁰.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

JACK PHILLIPS: Stopping the wedding art has cost us much of our business. It's hard to believe that the government is forcing me to choose between providing for my family and my employees and violating my relationship with God.

TOTENBERG: Dave Mullins and Charlie Craig, the gay couple turned away by Phillips, came to the microphones, too. Here's Craig.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

CHARLIE CRAIG: We're two regular guys. Dave and I do not have an agenda. We do, though, have hopes and dreams. We want to grow old together. And most importantly, we want everyone to be treated equally.

TOTENBERG: Inside the courtroom, all eyes were on Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of all of the Court's gay rights decisions, including the same-sex marriage decision. At the same time, Kennedy, a Reagan appointee, is also a fierce defender¹¹ of the First Amendment right of free speech and the free exercise of religion. Those values clash in this case. All of that prompted some contradictory¹² questions from Kennedy, who's likely to be the deciding vote in the case.

The argument opened with a series of hypotheticals posed by the court's liberals. Jack Phillips contended that he's a cake artist and he thus has a First Amendment right not to create a cake for a gay wedding. But to Colorado, he's a retailer¹³ and is barred from discriminating¹⁴ based on race, gender, religion or sexual orientation.

Justice Ginsburg addressing the question of free speech - at the wedding ceremony, the speeches of the people who are marrying and perhaps the officiant, but who else speaks? The artist speaks, replied Kristen Waggoner, representing the baker. It's as much Mr. Phillips' speech as it would be the couple's. Justice Ginsburg - who else, then, is an artist, the person who designs the wedding invitations or the menu?

Justice Kagan - how about the jeweler or the hairstylist or the makeup¹⁵ artist? No, replied the baker's lawyer; none of those are artists. Why not, asked Kagan, noting that the makeup artist has the word artist in her name and may be using her creativity and artistry, too. Jack Phillips' artistry is different, Waggoner insisted, contending at one point that a chef is not engaged in speech when she creates food for a wedding or a wedding anniversary, but a baker is.

Justice Breyer - we're asking these questions because we want some kind of distinction that will not undermine every civil rights law from the year two, laws that have long barred race, sex and religious discrimination. Solicitor¹⁶ General Noel Francisco representing the Trump¹⁷ administration agreed under questioning from the justices that there should be no discrimination permitted based on race. But he urged them to allow some narrow cases of discrimination, such as in this case, when the discrimination is based on gender or religion or sexual orientation.

Justice Kennedy - the problem for you is that so many of these examples do involve speech. If you prevail, asked Kennedy, could a baker put a sign in his window saying, we do not bake cakes for gay weddings? Yes, replied Francisco. He could say he does not make custom-made cakes for gay weddings. I think that's an affront¹⁸ to the gay community, said Kennedy. But moments later when Frederick Yarger, the lawyer for the state of Colorado, went to the lectern, a clearly angered Kennedy pointed¹⁹ to a statement by 1 of the 7 members of the state's Civil Rights Commission who was quoted as saying that freedom of religion used to justify²⁰ discrimination is a despicable piece of rhetoric²¹.

Suppose, said Kennedy, that we thought at least one member of the commission based his decision against the baker in this case on a hostility²² to religion. Can your judgment²³ stand? Lawyer Yarger argued that while a baker may refuse to put a message on a wedding cake if he finds it offensive, he may not refuse to sell a cake to a gay couple if he's sold the same cake to a straight couple. That, he said, is the essence of discrimination based on identity. Justice Kennedy didn't buy it. Tolerance²⁴ is essential in a free society, he told the lawyer; and tolerance is most meaningful when it's mutual²⁵. It seems to me, Kennedy added, that the state in its position here has been neither tolerant nor respectful of Mr. Phillips' religious beliefs.

Representing the gay couple in the case, lawyer David Cole of the ACLU told the justices that there's no evidence here that the state was targeting religion. Pressed by the court's conservatives, he reminded them of the late Justice Antonin Scalia's words. Scalia, a conservative icon²⁶, once wrote that a broad general law enforced neutrally is constitutional even when it has an incidental effect on some people's religious views. Otherwise, said Scalia, we would be in a world in which every man is a law unto himself.

Nina Totenberg, NPR News, Washington.

1 supreme   

adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的

参考例句：

• It was the supreme moment in his life.那是他一生中最重要的时刻。
• He handed up the indictment to the supreme court.他把起诉书送交最高法院。

2 baker   

n.面包师

参考例句：

• The baker bakes his bread in the bakery.面包师在面包房内烤面包。
• The baker frosted the cake with a mixture of sugar and whites of eggs.面包师在蛋糕上撒了一层白糖和蛋清的混合料。

3 amendment   

n.改正，修正，改善，修正案

参考例句：

• The amendment was rejected by 207 voters to 143.这项修正案以207票对143票被否决。
• The Opposition has tabled an amendment to the bill.反对党已经就该议案提交了一项修正条款。

4 exempts   

使免除[豁免]( exempt的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This privilege, however, exempts only predecisional documents. 然而，此特权只免除那些文件在作出决定之前的披露责任。
• Function effectiveness: After then special-purpose, exempts the flushing formula. 功能效用：便后专用，免冲洗配方。

5 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

6 bakers   

n.面包师( baker的名词复数 )；面包店；面包店店主；十三

参考例句：

• The Bakers have invited us out for a meal tonight. 贝克一家今晚请我们到外面去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The bakers specialize in catering for large parties. 那些面包师专门负责为大型宴会提供食品。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 jack   

n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克

参考例句：

• I am looking for the headphone jack.我正在找寻头戴式耳机插孔。
• He lifted the car with a jack to change the flat tyre.他用千斤顶把车顶起来换下瘪轮胎。

8 harassment   

n.骚扰，扰乱，烦恼，烦乱

参考例句：

• She often got telephone harassment at night these days.这些天她经常在夜晚受到电话骚扰。
• The company prohibits any form of harassment.公司禁止任何形式的骚扰行为。

9 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

10 orientation   

n.方向，目标；熟悉，适应，情况介绍

参考例句：

• Children need some orientation when they go to school.小孩子上学时需要适应。
• The traveller found his orientation with the aid of a good map.旅行者借助一幅好地图得知自己的方向。

11 defender   

n.保卫者，拥护者，辩护人

参考例句：

• He shouldered off a defender and shot at goal.他用肩膀挡开防守队员，然后射门。
• The defender argued down the prosecutor at the court.辩护人在法庭上驳倒了起诉人。

12 contradictory   

adj.反驳的，反对的，抗辩的；n.正反对，矛盾对立

参考例句：

• The argument is internally contradictory.论据本身自相矛盾。
• What he said was self-contradictory.他讲话前后不符。

13 retailer   

n.零售商(人)

参考例句：

• What are the retailer requirements?零售商会有哪些要求呢？
• The retailer has assembled a team in Shanghai to examine the question.这家零售商在上海组建了一支团队研究这个问题。

14 discriminating   

a.有辨别能力的

参考例句：

• Due caution should be exercised in discriminating between the two. 在区别这两者时应该相当谨慎。
• Many businesses are accused of discriminating against women. 许多企业被控有歧视妇女的做法。

15 makeup   

n.组织；性格；化装品

参考例句：

• Those who failed the exam take a makeup exam.这次考试不及格的人必须参加补考。
• Do you think her beauty could makeup for her stupidity?你认为她的美丽能弥补她的愚蠢吗？

16 solicitor   

n.初级律师，事务律师

参考例句：

• The solicitor's advice gave me food for thought.律师的指点值得我深思。
• The solicitor moved for an adjournment of the case.律师请求将这个案件的诉讼延期。

17 trump   

n.王牌，法宝；v.打出王牌，吹喇叭

参考例句：

• He was never able to trump up the courage to have a showdown.他始终鼓不起勇气摊牌。
• The coach saved his star player for a trump card.教练保留他的明星选手，作为他的王牌。

18 affront   

n./v.侮辱，触怒

参考例句：

• Your behaviour is an affront to public decency.你的行为有伤风化。
• This remark caused affront to many people.这句话得罪了不少人。

19 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

20 justify   

vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护

参考例句：

• He tried to justify his absence with lame excuses.他想用站不住脚的借口为自己的缺席辩解。
• Can you justify your rude behavior to me?你能向我证明你的粗野行为是有道理的吗？

21 rhetoric   

n.修辞学，浮夸之言语

参考例句：

• Do you know something about rhetoric?你懂点修辞学吗？
• Behind all the rhetoric,his relations with the army are dangerously poised.在冠冕堂皇的言辞背后，他和军队的关系岌岌可危。

22 hostility   

n.敌对，敌意；抵制［pl.］交战，战争

参考例句：

• There is open hostility between the two leaders.两位领导人表现出公开的敌意。
• His hostility to your plan is well known.他对你的计划所持的敌意是众所周知的。

23 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

24 tolerance   

n.宽容；容忍，忍受；耐药力；公差

参考例句：

• Tolerance is one of his strengths.宽容是他的一个优点。
• Human beings have limited tolerance of noise.人类对噪音的忍耐力有限。

25 mutual   

adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的

参考例句：

• We must pull together for mutual interest.我们必须为相互的利益而通力合作。
• Mutual interests tied us together.相互的利害关系把我们联系在一起。

26 icon   

n.偶像，崇拜的对象，画像

参考例句：

• They found an icon in the monastery.他们在修道院中发现了一个圣像。
• Click on this icon to align or justify text.点击这个图标使文本排齐。