A pair of Christian bakers who were fined for turning down an order for a same-sex wedding cake four years ago has now faced the Oregon Court of Appeals and argued that forcing them to pay the lesbian couple is a violation of state and federal laws.

(REUTERS / Mick Tsikas) Two bride figurines adorn the top of a wedding cake during an illegal same-sex wedding ceremony in central Melbourne August 1, 2009.

The cake row started when Rachel Bowman-Cryer went to Sweet Cakes by Melissa with her mother to look for a wedding cake. Although she was previously able to buy a cake from the bakery, one of the owners declined her this time, saying they do not make cakes for same-sex weddings. The customer and her wife Laurel complained to the Bureau of Labor and Industries, and a judge later ruled that the Christian bakers discriminated against the lesbian couple.

On Thursday, Sweet Cakes by Melissa owners Aaron and Melissa Klein faced the Oregon appeals court and said Labor Commissioner Brad Avakian and the bureau broke laws when they forced the Christian couple to pay $135,000 in damages to the lesbian couple who ordered the wedding cake. The bakers' legal team also said the Kleins' right to free speech and religious freedom were violated and that the fine imposed was excessive, Oregon Live details.

The Kleins are now seeking exemption to the 2007 Oregon Equality Act on religious grounds. Their legal representatives also said Avakian should have recused himself from the case, pointing out that the commissioner had praised a pro-LGBT group on Facebook a year before the hearing.

"The law cannot compel an architect to design a church. It cannot compel a rabbi to marry a Christian and a Jew," said C. Boyden Gray lawyer Adam Gustafson. "To do otherwise would offend the conscience and the constitution. The bureau's order must be vacated for the same reasons. It compels protected speech ... and it burdens religious exercise."

The Kleins' lawyers added that the cakes baked by Melissa were artworks that are protected by the First Amendment. However, Assistant Attorney General Carson Whitehead said the Kleins' refusal to bake a same-sex wedding cake is a violation of Oregon's anti-discrimination law.

The judges are set to decide on the Kleins' case later, but no specific date was mentioned.

In a similar case, the Washington Supreme Court ruled against a Christian florist last month who refused to arrange flowers for a same-sex wedding in 2013. Barronelle Stutzman was ordered to pay a gay couple a fine of $1,000, The Associated Press reports.

Like the Kleins, Stutzman also argued that she was just practicing her First Amendment rights by turning down the flower order for a gay wedding on religious grounds. However, the court said her floral arrangements are not under protected free speech.