Anti-Defamation League Mountain States Regional Director Scott L. Levin was interviewed this morning on Colorado Public Radio for a news story about the Masterpiece Cake Shop case and the shop’s legal representation by the Alliance for Defending Freedom. The case reaches the U.S. Supreme Court today.

“I have begrudging respect for them,” said Levin. He worries, though, that the shield of religious freedom has been turned on its head, and is now used “as a sword to try to influence, to make sure that I conform to the beliefs of ADF.”

The Anti-Defamation League joined an amicus brief in the case.

ADL asserts that anti-discrimination laws like Colorado’s embody First Amendment principles by prohibiting religious discrimination and protecting our nation’s vibrant diversity. Acceptance of the argument that discriminatory conduct is exempt from the law because of religious beliefs would undermine the rule in our pluralistic democracy, potentially allowing businesses to refuse to serve customers based on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, or any other protected characteristic, so long as they cited religious beliefs as the justification.