Lee v Ashers Baking Co Ltd
A bakery owned by Christians did not discriminate against a gay customer by refusing to bake a cake iced with a message supporting same sex marriage, because it objected to the message, not the customer.
Facts
Mr Lee, a gay man in Northern Ireland, ordered a cake from Ashers Baking, a bakery owned by a Christian couple, decorated with a picture of Bert and Ernie and the message Support Gay Marriage. The owners refused to make the cake, because the message conflicted with their religious belief that marriage was between a man and a woman. Mr Lee claimed that this was discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation and political opinion.
Legal principle
The Supreme Court held that there was no discrimination. Lady Hale said that the bakers objected to the message on the cake, not to Mr Lee himself, and would have refused to make such a cake for any customer, whatever their sexual orientation, so there was no less favourable treatment on grounds of sexual orientation. As to political opinion, the bakers' rights to freedom of religion and freedom of expression under articles 9 and 10 included the right not to be obliged to express a message with which they profoundly disagreed, unless this was justified, and it was not. The European Court of Human Rights later declared Mr Lee's application inadmissible, because he had not relied on his Convention rights in the domestic courts.
Related cases on religion, expression, assembly and association (articles 9 to 11)
- Attorney General v Guardian Newspapers Ltd (No 2) [1990] 1 AC 109
- Demir and Baykara v Turkey (2009) 48 EHRR 54
- Derbyshire County Council v Times Newspapers Ltd [1993] AC 534
- Director of Public Prosecutions v Ziegler [2021] UKSC 23, [2022] AC 408
- Eweida v United Kingdom (2013) 57 EHRR 8
- Handyside v United Kingdom (1979) 1 EHRR 737
- Jersild v Denmark (1995) 19 EHRR 1
- Kokkinakis v Greece (1994) 17 EHRR 397
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