Same-sex marriage: the US, Europe and the Obergefell questions

The US Supreme Court’s opinion in Obergefell v Hodges – it may come out today, or next week – will be historic whatever it decides. The main question is whether the Fourteenth Amendment to the US Constitution with its guarantee of the “equal protection of the laws” requires states to allow same-sex marriage. Either it […]

Strasbourg judgment: Eweida and others v UK

Nadia Eweida has succeeded in her claim that the UK breached her right to manifest her religion under article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights. Readers may remember that she worked for British Airways, and refused to abide by its uniform policy, insisting on wearing a cross visible to customers. By a majority of […]

Supreme Court judgment: Humphreys v HMRC

If you’re in the business of predicting court judgments, you can sometimes end up looking a mug. My last prediction wasn’t the best. Oh, well. At least the judges agreed with me on the time limit. Anyway, while the downside of legal punditry can be a mild judicial mugging from time to time, the upside […]

Humphreys v HMRC: Supreme Court, Day 2

Yesterday I explained the facts and legal background to this case, and a short account of the first day of the hearing, which concluded just after 1 pm today. I was again in court to hear Jason Coppel complete his submissions for HMRC, and Richard Drabble briefly respond. Jason Coppel began by stressing how little […]

Humphreys v HMRC: Supreme Court hearing

Today was the first day of the Supreme Court’s hearing in the case of Humphreys v HMRC, about sex discrimination in the child tax credit system. Mr Humphreys is complaining about the fact that HMRC refused him child tax credit in 2004-5. His children were staying with him 3 days a week – and 4 […]

R (Bailey) v Brent: law against the cuts (and politics)

As a resident of Brent in north-west London, I’m not sure what I think about the Labour council’s planned library cuts. I’m not happy that any should be cut. I don’t want social care to be cut any more than it needs to be, either, or any of the other important things councils do. And […]

EHRC observations in Strasbourg “religitigation” cases

A few weeks ago Adam Wagner at the UK Human Rights Blog told us the ECHR had changed the stance it took in July on a series of religious discrimination claims currently being pursued in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. Those claims include the case of Nadia Eweida, who wanted by BA […]

Outing, idle gossip and sexuality discrimination

An interesting discrimination law judgment came the Court of Appeal on Friday in Grant v H.M Land Registry. Chris Grant worked for the Land Registry, initially at Lytham, where he was “out”; but when he got promoted to a job in Coventry, he decided to keep quiet about at first about being gay, intending perhaps […]

Employment Tribunal ruling: O’Reilly v BBC

Here’s the Employment Tribunal’s ruling in Miriam O’Reilly’s successful age discrimination and victimisation claim aginst the BBC over its decision to drop her as a presenter of Countryfile. She won on age discrimination, on the basis that the ET thought she would have been considered seriously as a presenter when the programme moved to an […]

That pesky age discrimination law (again)

In January I noticed not all employers had yet “got it” about age discrimination. Now here’s more evidence, this time from an “executive search” company no less: I suggest if they want to avoid breaching regulation 7 of the Employment Equality (Age) Regulations 2006, they should consider also looking for the next “bright middle-aged thing” […]