Supreme Court passes on sequel to wedding cake baker

The Supreme Court on Monday passed up the chance to decide whether a baker's religious objections to same-sex marriage means she can refuse to create a wedding cake for a gay couple despite state law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The case would have been a sequel to last year's consideration of the same topic. The court ruled then for a Colorado baker who refused to make a cake for a gay couple's wedding reception, but it left undecided whether a business owner's religious beliefs or free speech rights can justify refusing some services to gay people. But after considering for months whether to accept the new case, the court sent it back to a lower court to review again.

The new case comes from Oregon, where Melissa and Aaron Klein closed their bakery, Sweetcakes by Melissa, after being fined $135,000 for refusing to make a wedding cake in 2013 for a lesbian couple. In last term's case, Justice Anthony Kennedy found improper religious bias by some Colorado officials against baker Jack C. Phillips. But he acknowledged the decision did not settle the larger issue.

The Klein case was decided by an Oregon court before the Supreme Court's decision last June in the Colorado case.