“The View” co-host Whoopi Goldberg said Tuesday she would refuse to bake a cake for a Nazi, but also thinks other people should have to provide services for customers against their own beliefs.
The panel discussed the case before the Supreme Court involving Christian web designer Lorie Smith, who refused to provide services to a gay couple. Smith argued it would violate her First Amendment rights if she was unable to promote “her understanding of marriage.” She is seeking an exemption from a state law that bars discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Co-host Joy Behar posed the hypothetical scenario in which a customer requests a cake with a swastika and asks whether she, as a hypothetical baker, would be compelled to bake that cake. Co-host Sunny Hostin said Behar would hypothetically have to make the cake, per her law school teachings. Co-host Sara Haines then argued both Smith and Colorado baker Jack Phillips, who refused to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple in a separate case, still provide services to gay individuals, but draw the line at marriage-related work.
Goldberg then said she should be able to refuse a request to bake an anti-Semitic cake, but that other individuals must be legally compelled to provide a service to someone even if they don’t want to. (RELATED: Gorsuch Grills Lawyer Over Whether Colorado Baker Had To Go Through ‘Reeducation Program’)
“Listen, if somebody comes into my bakery and wants me to make a swastika on a cake, I’m going to say, ‘Actually, I’m not going to do that, because to me, that’s just anti-human being. I don’t believe in the Nazi party, and you can go over there where they will make it for you,'” Goldberg said, arguing her right to refuse providing a service to a customer “should be protected.”
Goldberg previously said during the panel discussion that Smith was “pooping on my religious freedom,” and argued the Constitution gives individuals “freedom from religious beliefs.”