The Supreme Court’s decision in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby Stores. 573 U.S. 22 (2014), and President Barack Obama’s Executive Order 11246 amendment, adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of protected categories in the existing Executive Order covering federal contractors without including expanded religious exemptions, has brought questions of intersecting individual rights into the forefront of U.S. debate. In Hobby Lobby, the Supreme Court found that the “closely held” corporation could refuse to comply with the Affordable Care Act contraceptive coverage requirement because of the religious beliefs of its owners. Through Obama’s Executive Order, an individual’s right to be free of discrimination in employment based on his sexual orientation and gender identity has been expanded to roughly 28 million workers, including those who work for religiously affiliated employers. In watching how these two decisions will play out in their implementation and likely further court challenges, it is informative to look to how other parts of the world are addressing similar questions.

One such example, comes from the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) by way of the United Kingdom. In January 2013, the ECHR ruled in two UK-based cases addressing the question of whether individuals could claim religious discrimination after losing their jobs for refusing to perform duties for same-sex couples. In both Ladele v. London Borough of Islington and McFarlane v. Related Avon, the individuals lost.

Balancing Rights

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