The United States of America is supposed to be a land of liberty, where individuals are free to live as they want as long as they don’t harm others around them.

Sadly, it looks like that ideal is slowly being twisted into state-enforced conformity: Either you do what others demand, or pay the price.

For Aaron and Melissa Klein, that price was steep — $135,000 to be exact. That’s the penalty they were ordered to pay after they declined at their bakery in Oregon to make a custom cake for a lesbian wedding.

“Laurel Bowman-Cryer and her wife Rachel sued after the Kleins refused to bake a cake for them,” reported Fox News. “Rachel Campos-Duffy reported that the women claimed the incident caused weight gain and was akin to being ‘mentally raped.’”

Yes, the lesbian couple’s hysterical claims of victimhood now include “cake rape” and getting fat. Back in the real world, the court’s order has had a dramatic impact on the Christian small-business owners.

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“It’s definitely been hard on our family. It’s taken a toll on our family,” Melissa Klein said during an interview with Fox.

The husband and wife said they intend to fight the court’s ruling, which has essentially shut down their custom cake business and pushed the family into financial difficulty.

Michael Berry, an attorney from First Liberty Institute who is representing the Klein’s, had sharp words for the court’s decision.

“If you look at the court’s opinion […] one of the the things the court said was, they didn’t think that custom designing and making a custom wedding cake is a form of art,” he said.

“As the ACLU themselves said, freedom of expression for ourselves means we have to allow freedom of expression for others,” Berry continued.

“Aaron and Melissa Klein just want the same basic treatment that everybody else in this country wants and deserves.”

The Fox News reporter asked an obvious question: Could this ruling affect other people, including liberal workers and business owners who might be forced to provide a service that goes against their beliefs?

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That’s when the attorney for the custom bakers perfectly summarized the concerns of so many Americans.

“Punishing people for their religious beliefs is wrong, it’s un-American,” he stated.

“And if you take this court’s opinion and you look at what it truly means for religious liberty, but for freedom of speech and the First Amendment in this country, it absolutely can be extended that far,” Berry continued.

He conclusion summed it up perfectly:

“What about what’s happened to Aaron and Melissa Klein and their family? The fact that this $135,000 penalty has forced them to close their business … That’s harmful, not only to Aaron and Melissa Klein, but really to all Americans. Because that means the government can now force us, under threat of massive penalties, to say things that go against our religious beliefs. And that’s just wrong.”

It’s an extremely good point: What prevents this ruling from being applied to many other areas? Where is the line?

Take a videographer or a web designer, for instance. What happens if an alt-right group tries to hire a liberal to make a promo video for a rally or build a website that the business owner finds completely distasteful? Should those entrepreneurs be forced to do the work, under threat of lawsuit?

Or, how about a Muslim-owned magazine publisher? If somebody pays for an advertisement with a full-page drawing of Muhammad, is the magazine now required to print it?

For all the lip service that the left gives to providing “choices,” progressives instead seem intent on tearing down anybody who dares make a choice that is different from theirs.

There’s no end in sight… and that should trouble Americans who value individual freedom, no matter where they fall on the political spectrum.

Please like and share on Facebook and Twitter if you think people should be free to choose whom they do business with.

What do you think of what this attorney said? Scroll down to comment below!

President Donald Trump lashed out at Pakistan on Twitter just a few minutes past 7:00 a.m. Eastern time on New Year’s Day, expressing frustration at Islamabad’s inadequate efforts against terrorism and implying that U.S. foreign aid will be terminated as a result.

The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools. They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 1, 2018

It is not yet clear whether the “no more” exclamation means the complete or partial termination, or temporary suspension, of American aid to Pakistan.

If the complete termination of U.S. foreign aid does indeed become official policy, it would be a far more dramatic step than withholding all or part of America’s $255 million in military assistance to Pakistan, a measure reportedly under consideration by the administration over the past few days after Pakistan refused to allow U.S. interrogators access to a captured terrorist from the hostage-taking Haqqani network.

In August, President Trump said the “next pillar” of his strategy for battling terrorism would involve a “change in our approach to Pakistan.”

Trump accused Pakistan of giving “safe haven to agents of chaos, violence, and terror.”

“We can no longer be silent about Pakistan’s safe havens for terrorist organizations, the Taliban and other groups that pose a threat to the region and beyond,” the president said. ”These killers need to know they have nowhere to hide – that no place is beyond the reach of American arms.

The Trump administration withheld $50 million in military aid to Pakistan over the summer because it felt Islamabad was not doing enough to bring down the Taliban and the Haqqani Network. There was some criticism at the time that despite his strong complaints about Pakistan refusing to help fight the Taliban or even actively colluding with it, Trump was dealing more harshly with Egypt over human rights violations by its government.

The Pakistani military rescued a Canadian-American family held hostage for years by the Haqqanis in October. Concerns have been raised that even this rescue might have been the result of a deal between the Pakistanis and the militant network, which has long been suspected of enjoying special favors and protection from elements of the Pakistani security apparatus. The prisoner Pakistan refused to allow the United States to interview was tied to the kidnapping of this Canadian-American family.

On Thursday, Pakistani military spokesman Major-General Asif Ghafoor warned the United States against taking “unilateral” military action on its soil and denied his country was not doing enough to fight the Taliban and its allies, promising that the results of Pakistan’s counterterrorism operations would be “seen in subsequent years and months.”

After making this declaration, Ghafoor implied Pakistan could actually do more, once its concerns about Afghan refugees are addressed. “If there are any facilitators and abetters inside Pakistan that can only be addressed if the 2.7 million Afghan refugees are sent back to Afghanistan,” he said.