Christian owners of an Oregon bakery have returned to the Supreme Court to ask the justices to hear their challenge to a lower court ruling that they discriminated against a lesbian couple.
The high court in June threw out an Oregon state court ruling against Melissa and Aaron Klein, who owned "Sweet Cakes by Melissa," for refusing to bake a cake in 2013 based on their Christian beliefs.
The Kleins had been fined $135,000.
The justices sent the case back to an Oregon court so it could reconsider its ruling in light of the Supreme Court's June 2018 decision in a similar case from Colorado.
The Oregon Court of Appeals again upheld a ruling by the state civil rights division that found that the Gresham, Oregon, bakery illegally discriminated against the couple.
The state in July slashed the financial penalties it assigned the Kleins to $30,000, Oregon Live reported.
"Per the direction of the Court of Appeals, we have recalibrated the damages awarded to complainants to fall squarely within the range of such awards in previous (labor bureau) public accommodations cases," Oregon Labor Commissioner Val Hoyle said in a statement on Twitter.
Melissa Elaine Klein, et vir, Petitioners v. Oregon Bureau of Labor and Industries was docketed at the Supreme Court on Wednesday.
After the Kleins initially appealed to the Supreme Court, the justices sent their case back down to the Oregon court citing the ruling in Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission.
The Supreme Court ruled 7-2 in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple, citing his Christian faith.
The high court said comments by a member of the Colorado Civil Rights Commission displayed an anti-religious bias. The decision, though, left unresolved the bigger question of whether certain businesses can claim religious exemptions from anti-discrimination laws.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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