by Ana Elise Lowe • 4 minutes
Melissa Klein never imagined her passion for baking would lead to a decade-long legal battle. She simply wanted to serve people by making unique and delicious cakes.
She loved creating custom cakes that made birthdays, weddings and baby showers feel special. Sweet Cakes by Melissa wasn’t just a business. It was her passion, her artistic expression, a second home.
It was a dream built with her husband Aaron as a way to support their family and bless their community. The shop was a legacy she and her husband even hoped to pass on to their 5 children.
But that dream was shattered the day they made a decision to take a stand for their faith.
In 2013, a woman walked into their bakery and asked for a custom cake to celebrate her same-sex wedding. The Kleins politely declined and referred her to another bakery.
Their Christian beliefs teach them that marriage is between a man and a woman. They couldn’t, in good conscience, apply their artistic talents to create a custom cake to celebrate something at odds with their faith.
The couple got their cake somewhere else.
But the Kleins got something else entirely.
A legal complaint. A government investigation. A $135,000 fine from the state of Oregon. And a wave of public hatred that would uproot their lives.
On top of the fine, Melissa shared that “Oregon state officials said the way that I think, the way I choose to run my business, or the way that I run my life is wrong and needs to be rehabilitated.”
It wasn’t just the money that devastated them. It was everything that came next.
People called them names. Vendors they’d worked with for years dropped them overnight. Protestors showed up outside their store. People wrote hateful messages on their vehicle. Thousands of emails poured in—vile, profane, sometimes threatening. Some people went as far as to say that they hoped their children would die.
What do you even do with that?
For a while, they just tried to survive. They pulled their kids out of school. They kept their heads down. They tried to protect their family from a world that suddenly seemed eager to destroy them.
“We sheltered them a bit more from some of the stuff that goes on in the world,” Melissa said. “I would have to just reach out to God and say, ‘Okay, you got to give me a shield or something, because I can’t take this.’”
The pressure would’ve crushed most people. And no one would have blamed them for walking away.
But Aaron and Melissa didn’t.
They took their case through Oregon’s legal system, but the state courts ruled against them. Then they went to the U.S. Supreme Court. Granting review of the case and remanding it back to the Oregon state court, the Court sent a clear message to the lower courts: reconsider the case in light of the Court’s Masterpiece Cakeshop decision.
Their case worked its way back up to the nation’s highest court a second time. The Supreme Court, once again, sent the case back down for reconsideration.
Even so, Oregon’s courts have yet to follow the Supreme Court’s direction.
Now, more than 10 years later, the Kleins are still waiting. It’s been two years since the Supreme Court told Oregon to reconsider. And the Kleins are still waiting.
They’ve lost their shop. They’ve lost their income. They’ve been called every name imaginable. They’ve endured threats against their children.
And still, they stand.
The Kleins have since moved to another state, seeking peace for their family. “We just needed to be in a place that valued freedom,” Melissa said.
They opened a store there, hoping to start fresh and rebuild all that they’d lost back in Oregon. But that doesn’t make the pain or the injustice go away.
And that’s why they haven’t stopped fighting.
Because they believe some things are worth standing for.
What the Kleins have endured isn’t just a legal case. It’s the heartbreak of losing what you worked years to build. The pain of watching your kids targeted. The weight of knowing you could make it all stop… if you’d just back down.
But they haven’t. Because, deep down, they can’t.
Ten years later, their case is still unfinished. But their courage? That’s been clear from the very beginning.
Their story is a reminder that religious freedom isn’t theoretical. It’s personal. It’s messy. And sometimes, fighting for this sacred freedom costs more than you ever imagined.
But for the Kleins, living with conviction has always been worth the cost.
Even when it costs everything.
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