Supreme Court agrees to hear appeal of Christian baker who refused to make gay wedding cake

The U.S. Supreme Court has decided to hear the appeal of a Colorado baker who was punished by the state for refusing to make a cake for a same-sex wedding because it violated his sincerely held religious beliefs.

On Monday, the high court announced that it would review the case of baker Jack Philips, who owns Masterpiece Cakeshop in Lakewood, Colorado.

In 2012, a gay couple filed a complaint against Phillips after he refused to bake a same-sex wedding cake because of his Christian faith. Two years later, the Colorado Civil Rights Commission found him guilty of discrimination and claimed that he had violated the Colorado's Anti-Discrimination Act (CADA).

Phillips was ordered undergo sensitivity training and provide the commission with updates and explanations about any cake orders he refused to take.

According to The Daily Signal, Masterpiece Cakeshop has stopped making all wedding cakes in 2014 rather than be compelled and fined for refusing to design and bake cakes for same-sex marriages.

Phillips previously stated that he also will not make cakes depicting witchcraft, ghosts, demons or sexually suggestive images.

He stated in 2015 that he faced a loss of at least $100,000 a year after Colorado judges ruled that he must make cakes for same-sex weddings. The baker said that his shop used to produce about 200 custom-made wedding cakes a year, at about $500 per cake.

In August 2015, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the Civil Rights Commission, prompting Phillips to file an appeal with the state supreme court last October. However, the Colorado Supreme Court refused to hear his case in April, which led him to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court in July 2016.

"I fear that I will ultimately lose everything and be forced to close if the lower court's decision is not reversed," Phillips said in a statement on Monday.

"Laws like the one in Colorado will result in kindhearted Americans being dragged before state commissions and courts and punished by the government for peacefully seeking to live and work consistent with their belief about marriage. The couple who came into my shop that day five years ago are free to hold their beliefs about marriage; all I ask is that I be allowed the equal opportunity to keep mine," he added.

The Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian legal aid group representing Phillips, described him as a "cake artist." The legal group argued that under the First Amendment, Phillips cannot be compelled by the government to use his talents to express a message supporting same-sex marriage.