A few days' passing and thorough reading of the oral argument transcript for Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission leave me less optimistic than commentators such as Amy Howe at Scotusblog and David French at National Review.  While it was heartening that Justice Kennedy called out one of the Colorado civil rights commissioners for a statement apparently expressing animus toward religion, with the chief justice going so far as to suggest that this necessarily tainted the court's earlier ruling against Jack Phillips, and Justice Alito cynically pointing out that none of the other commissioners disavowed the commissioner's unseemly statement then or has since, still, the line-drawing the conservative justices seemed to be searching for remained fuzzy. Would a ruling in favor of Phillips gut civil rights protections, as opponents relentlessly and hyperbolically argue?  It wouldn't.  The conservative justices seemed to know that it...(Read Full Article)