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Furthermore, the Court found that the relevant legislation was not incompatible with articles 9, 10 or 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

Background

In May 2014, Gareth Lee placed an order with Ashers for a customised cake with a colour picture of “Bert and Ernie” (the logo for QueerSpace) with the headline caption “Support Gay Marriage” to mark the end of “Northern Ireland Anti-homophobic Week” to mark the political momentum towards same-sex marriage legislation.

Ashers accepted the order, but subsequently telephoned Mr Lee indicating that the order could not be fulfilled as the bakery was a “Christian business” and that the order should not have been accepted. Ashers accepted that the order was cancelled because of their religious beliefs as they are opposed to a change in the law regarding gay marriage which they regard as sinful. Mr Lee was given a refund and he was able to secure a similar cake from another outlet in time for the event.

Mr Lee issued a Civil Bill on 6 November 2014 claiming damages for breach of statutory duty in and about the provision of goods, facilities and services. When the matter came on for hearing, District Judge Brownlie accepted that the owners of Ashers and their employees had a Christian belief which was genuinely and sincerely held but that Ashers conducted a business for profit and was not a religious organization. She held that it could not therefore avail of the specific exemption for such organisations in Regulation 16 of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (NI) 2006.

In May 2015, District Judge Brownlie reached the following conclusions:

District Judge Brownlie concluded that Ashers actions amounted to direct discrimination contrary to Regulation 5(1) of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations (NI) 2006

Court of Appeal

The Court of Appeal was asked to consider four questions, however they only answered two:

Firstly, the Court of Appeal held that the District Court Judge was correct as a matter of law to hold that Ashers had discriminated against Mr Lee directly on grounds of sexual orientation contrary to the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2006.

Secondly, the Court held that the District Court Judge was correct as a matter of law to hold that it was not necessary to read down or display the provisions of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation) Regulations 2006 or the Fair Employment and Treatment (NI) Order 1998 to take account of Ashers protected right to hold and manifest their genuinely held religious belief that marriage is, according to God’s law, between one man and one woman, pursuant to article 9 ECHR. According to the Court of Appeal, there was nothing in this case arising under article 10 ECHR which did not already arise under article 9.

It was necessary to address the constitutional point raised by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland. Further to the intervention of the Attorney General, the Court issued a Devolution Notice and a Notice of Incompatibility of Subordinate Legislation:

The Court found that the prohibition on discrimination in section 24(1) of the 1998 Act did not affect the power to make, confirm and approve Regulation 5 of the 2006 Regulations and the prohibition on discrimination in section 17 of the 1973 Act does not affect the legality of article 28 of the 1998 Order. In response to the Notice of Incompatibility of Subordinate Legislation, the Court found that the provisions of the 2006 Regulations and the 1998 Order were not incompatible with articles 9, 10 or 14 of the ECHR.