JACK PHILLIPS: What the state can do to me — it can do to you.

My creativity is inseparable from my convictions, and both run deep in my soul.But this desire to create art that is consistent with who I am is what has brought me into conflict with state officials who have tried to force me to say something I don’t believe. The Colorado government, and then an activist attorney, have misused state law for over a decade now, trying to harass and punish me until I express messages against my beliefs — or go out of business. This relentless prosecution violates both my religious freedom and my free speech.

I had to go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court with the help of my attorneys with Alliance Defending Freedom in 2017, where a 7-2 majority determined that state officials had shown impermissible hostility toward me and my religious beliefs. That went a long way toward shoring up my religious freedom, and I’m grateful. But sadly, the court’s ruling didn’t address how state law was misused to violate my free speech — as it continues to be today.

The newest lawsuit seeks to force me to create a custom cake celebrating a gender transition, and now I’m before the Colorado Supreme Court in that case — with the support of a remarkable 22 states — after the Court of Appeals ruled that the law can be used to force me to express things I don’t believe.

Sadly, I’m not the only one.

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