DENVER (AP) — A judge says the latest legal challenge by a Colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a gay couple can continue.

In a ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Wiley Daniel rejected Colorado's arguments that the federal court should stay out of the dispute over whether the state is treating Jack Phillips unfairly by prosecuting him for refusing to make a cake celebrating a gender transition.

The Supreme Court ruled in June that Colorado civil rights commissioners showed anti-religious bias when it sanctioned Phillips, a Christian, for refusing to make the wedding cake in 2012. Daniel said the commission's decision to prosecute Phillips in the new case after the Supreme Court criticized it supports Phillips' claim that it is acting in bad faith against him.