OREGON: Anti-Gay Bakery Found Guilty Of Discrimination, Hearing Set For March

Via the Oregonian:

The long-running legal battle sparked by a Gresham bakery's refusal to make a wedding cake for a lesbian couple will proceed toward a March hearing after a failed effort to have the case thrown out. An administrative law judge has rejected an attempt by lawyers representing the owners of Sweet Cakes by Melissa to dismiss the case and award them $200,000 for damages, court costs and attorney fees. Instead, the judge said in an interim order that Aaron and Melissa Klein unlawfully discriminated against the same-sex couple by denying them full and equal access to a place of public accommodation. The ruling clears the way for a March 10 hearing in Portland in a highly charged case centering on the business owners' religious beliefs and alleged violation of their customers' civil rights. In Oregon, such contested civil rights cases can be heard before an administrative law judge or taken to civil court. Both sides had sought summary judgment in the dispute. But in his Jan. 29 interim order, Alan McCullough found that the undisputed facts in the case supported charges of unlawful discrimination under the Oregon Equality Act.

Read the ruling. And get ready for an avalanche of sadz tomorrow.