I was invited to speak to the J Rueben Clark Law Society annual conference on Friday May 29, and gave a paper on Religious Freedom in Australia. (I am not a member of the Society but happy to share in the work of supporting religious freedom with its members.) The paper covers something of the ground I covered in a previous blog post on this area, but in more detail and with footnotes! After the paper one member of the audience noted that I had omitted to mention s 46 of the Tasmanian Constitution Act 1934 which is the only provision for specific religious freedom protection in Australia in a State Constitution. Worth keeping in mind though so far no court has ever had occasion to consider what it means. Those who are interested in a detailed analysis of the somewhat patchwork system for religious freedom protection in Australia at the moment may find the paper of interest.
Freedom of religion
Cakes, t-shirts and religious freedom- an update
A brief note about two decisions illustrating radically different approaches to religious freedom developing in the context of laws prohibiting sexual orientation discrimination, both from the United States.
One case, Re Klein dba Sweetcakes by Melissa and anor (Commissioner of the Bureau of Labor and Industries, State of Oregon; Case Nos 44-14, 45-14; 21 April 2015) is in the “genre” of the wedding industry cases I have previously commented on. The owners of a small-town cake shop were asked to make a wedding cake. When they discovered that this was for a same sex “commitment ceremony” (at the time same sex marriage was not legal in Oregon), they declined on the grounds of their Christian beliefs. Soon word got around, they were besieged by protests and in fact had to shut down their shopfront business. In this decision the Commissioner has ruled, on the basis of a previous finding of liability for sexual orientation discrimination, that they should pay $135,000 in damages to the couple concerned for “emotional suffering”.
The argument that the refusal to provide a cake was not based on the sexual orientation of the customers, but based on the fact that the cake was designed to send a message contrary to the shop-owner’s religious beliefs, was rejected. The Commissioner ruled that holding a same sex wedding ceremony was “inextricably linked” to the complainant’s sexual orientation, and “The Respondents’ refusal to provide a wedding cake for Complainants because it was for their same sex wedding was synonymous with refusing to provide a cake because of Complainants’ sexual orientation” (p 38, lines 14-16).
Nor was a religious freedom argument accepted. Applying the US Supreme Court decision in Smith (1990), the law in question was a “valid and neutral law of general applicability” and hence the First Amendment “free exercise of religion” right did not assist- see e.g. p 57, lines 1-3. Oregon has no RFRA law designed to restore an earlier, more expansive, view of religious freedom.
The imposition of the fine by the Commissioner is subject to further review, and of course to a potential appeal. Interestingly, a public appeal for funds to pay the fine started on an internet site used for this sort of purpose before, but was then cancelled as the host of the site met complaints that the funds would be supporting “campaigns in defense of formal charges of heinous crimes, including violent, hateful, or sexual acts.” Presumably the act of politely declining to bake a cake was a “heinous” act of “hate”.
The other case could hardly be more different in outcome, though sharing many features with Klein. In Hands on Originals, Inc v Lexington-Fayette Urban County Human Rights Commission (Fayette Circuit Court, Civil Branch, 3rd Div, Ky; Civil Action No 14-CI-04474; James D Ishmael Jr, J; 27 April 2015) a printer of T-shirts and promotional materials had declined to print advertising for a “Gay Pride” march. The company had been found by the Human Rights Commission to have discriminated against the local Gay and Lesbian Services Organisation in its refusal.
Judge Ishmael overturned the finding of discrimination. His Honour noted that the company had operated in accordance with the Christian principles of its proprietor for some years, and had declined a number of previous printing jobs on the basis of the messages being conveyed (for example, shirts promoting a strip club and others containing a violence related message- see p 9). He also noted that the former president of the GLSO, who had filed the complaint, does not identify as gay and is actually married to someone of the opposite sex. It was a particularly clear case where the refusal of the job was based on the message, and not the sexual orientation of the customer.
In reviewing the Commission’s decision the judge applied Constitutional principles as well as disagreeing with the finding of sexual orientation discrimination. The decision of the Commission was said to breach the company’s First Amendment freedom of speech, because the Commission was in effect requiring them to speak a message they did not support (see p 9). As his Honour said:
HOO’s declination to print the shirts was based upon the message of GLSO and the Pride Festival and not on the sexual orientation of its representatives or members. (at p 10, emphasis in original)
In addition, the Commission’s finding was a breach of religious freedom rights. Here the judge did not need to find his way through the barrier of the Smith decision, because Kentucky statute KRS 446.350 was a State-based version of the RFRA discussed in previous posts. This provision required a Government showing that a substantial burden on religious freedom could be shown to be in furtherance of a “compelling governmental interest” and was the “least restrictive means” to further that interest. Here there was a clear burden in requiring a Christian printing firm to support a message they saw as contrary to the Bible. (In light of the Supreme Court decision in Hobby Lobby (2014), the RFRA provision in referring to “person” should be read as including corporate persons like the company HOO- see p 14). The Government could not demonstrate why it was necessary to do this to further any interest it had- as the judge noted, the complainant organisation had no problems in getting their printing done by another company. (Indeed, HOO in its dealings with the GLSO had offered to find another company who would do the job at the same price that they would have charged, if the organisation had had any problems in doing so.)
Why the different results?
These cases offer similar situations: a commercial service provider who, because of their Christian beliefs concerning sexuality, cannot in good conscience provide their artistic talents to the support of a message favouring same sex relationships, and is alleged to be guilty of sexual orientation discrimination. In my view the second decision was correct, and the first decision ought to have been decided in a similar way. But there are differences that may have made a difference. The differences may lie in:
- different complainants: in the Klein case homosexual persons, whereas in the HOO case the person requesting the job did not identify as gay;
- different purposes for which the job was required: in the Klein case the celebration of a wedding between the parties, which of course carries all the sympathies of those who love weddings; whereas in HOO the issue is a public parade;
- different degrees to which the issue is about “speech”: the HOO case looks to be all about a message, and the US courts are traditionally very keen to support free speech; the Klein case is about a form of speech, when analysed carefully (the celebration of a relationship), but appears on the surface not to be;
- and the legislative context: it seems that this is one example where the presence of an RFRA made a difference- in Klein the Smith decision (which on top of everything else was about facts which arose in Oregon) receives priority, whereas in HOO the judge applies what is in effect the pre-Smith line of cases reflected in the local RFRA.
Still, it is good in my view to see a judicial decision recognising the strength of the free speech and freedom of religion arguments in these cases, and it may be hoped that this case provides support for a better analysis in other cases.
One step forward, two steps back: religious freedom, vaccination and RFRA’s
I couldn’t help noticing some disturbing features of the debates over religious freedom in the last few weeks. The pattern: a government body makes a decision to improve or uphold religious freedom, and for some reason it then does a “back-flip” so that we arguably end up worse off than before. The two examples: Indiana’s RFRA law and Australia’s guidelines on vaccinations.
Example 1- Indiana
Like many others interested in this area, I previously posted about the proposals to enact a Religious Freedom Restoration Act in the US State of Indiana. In brief, this law was part of a number of similar laws that had been enacted at Federal and State level to provide greater protection for religious freedom, in the face of a very narrow reading of the “free exercise” clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution. (Incidentally, this week was the 25th anniversary of the decision setting up that narrow reading, Employment Division v Smith, marked by an excellent piece noting it as “Justice Scalia’s Worst Opinion“.)
The law was, as previously noted, the subject of a massive campaign against it in the media, and in the political sphere, with the spectre of mass boycotts of the whole State. (And the incredible tale of a small-town pizza store, the subject of “entrapment” by a local TV reporter, led to answer “No” to the question that presumably no-one had ever asked anyone before, “would you provide your pizzas to cater for a same sex wedding?” The resulting internet “firestorm” saw an online threat to burn down the store, along with a large amount of money donated to the store to encourage them to stay in business.)
The “pizza wedding” furphy, of course, arose because one motivation behind the enactment of increased religious freedom protection is an attempt to deal with the clash created when Christian bakers, photographers and florists are faced with penalties for not wanting to devote their artistic skills to supporting an institution they believe to be contrary to the Bible’s teaching on marriage and sex.
Here, however, is where the back-flip comes in. The Indiana government decided to amend the new law (not even in force yet) to respond to the online discourse that their act was a “license to discrimination against gays”. In doing so they have ended up, according to a number of commentators in the US, with a situation that now restricts religious freedom in this area to a greater degree that had previously been the case. Now the law will make it clear that Indiana citizens who have strong religious beliefs about support for the new institution of same sex marriage may not, apparently, choose to decline to provide their skills in support of this institution. Two steps back.
Example 2- vaccination in Australia
Again, I posted about this recently. The Australian Federal government has decided, to create more incentives for all parents to vaccinate their children against common childhood diseases, to withdraw key social security benefits from those who do not do so. Their initial announcement, which I applauded, included an exemption for those who had religious objections to vaccination.
Now we hear that this religious exemption will not be preserved. In fact the number of groups to whom it would apply was already very small- the main one seems to have been the “Church of Christ Scientist”, usually called “Christian Science”. There is an excellent review of religious objections to vaccination around the world here, which reveals that this and some parts of the Dutch Reformed Church are the only religious groups which can be plausibly said to have genuine religious objections to vaccination.
Even this author concedes, however, that an exemption granted to those with genuine religious objections could arguably be limited enough not to have a major impact on the “herd immunity” factor needed to protect those who cannot be vaccinated for health reasons.
A community can afford to have a small number of conscientious objectors to immunization. (at 2019)
In Australia it seems clear that the number of active members of the Christian Science church is small, around 1000. In fact, the press report noted above suggests that the leaders of the church in Australia had indicated that they no longer objected to their members being vaccinated. So it may be that in practice the new policy will not affect many people. But in my view it is a bad precedent. Australia’s constitution, s 116, requires the Commonwealth Parliament (and, by implication, guidelines and regulations made under authority of legislation passed by the Parliament) not to unduly impede the free exercise of religion. (See my previous post summarising religious freedom protections in Australia.) Withdrawal of a benefit of this sort, which many parents rely on, without allowing at least a theoretical exemption on religious grounds, arguably amounts to undue interference.
I am not so naive as to ignore the possibility that if such an exemption is available, those who object to vaccination on other grounds might try to misuse the provision by making false claims of membership. But as I noted in my previous post, there are clear ways that courts and government bodies can test such claims. Does the person have a history of attending meetings of this organisation before the relevant change of law? Will a respected leader of the organisation testify to their membership? Is there a plausible argument that this is indeed what the religion teaches? Is it a genuine religion? A religious exemption process would involve investigating these matters, but it would allow a better balance between religious freedom and community health concerns than a proposal to ignore religious freedom altogether. Again, we have moved from a situation where there was a religious freedom exemption, even if rarely relied on, to where there is now none. Two steps back.
Is there a lesson to be learned from these two examples? To be honest, I am not sure. Perhaps one clear message is that arguing for the preservation of religious freedom is difficult in a climate where many are cynical about religion, and where it is easy not to spend the time looking into the real harms being done to believers by sidelining their genuine concerns. Even where religious freedom has been gained one day, it can be lost very easily!
Indiana Laws and the Raiders of the Lost Freedom
Probably the most likely context in which most Australian readers will have heard of “Indiana” is in the famous movie series from the 1980’s, alluded to in my cringe-worthy blog title! But the internet has been alive in recent days with headlines trumpeting the fact that this otherwise innocuous American State seem to be suddenly riddled with gay-hating “homophobes”. As exalted a figure as Tim Cook, CEO of Apple, describes recent legislation enacted there and elsewhere as “Pro-discrimination ‘religious freedom’ laws“. His reference to “days of segregation and discrimination marked by “Whites Only” signs on shop doors, water fountains and restrooms” implies that such laws are somehow authorising behaviour the moral equivalent of the worst sort of racial discrimination practised in the Deep South before the civil rights era. Even an article in the local Sydney Morning Herald tells us that under this dreadful law “a bar could use the law to refuse service to gay clientele” and it is “a licence to discriminate.”
All of this sounds horrible, and it would be- if it were remotely attached to reality! But the fact is that both the origins of the law, and its actual legal effects, have been misrepresented in these articles and other internet coverage- misrepresented so seriously that it is hard to avoid the conclusion that those running the “campaign” against the law in the US are doing so intentionally. I’d like to try and set the law in context, describe how it might operate, and offer a few comments about similar issues that may arise in Australia in the future.
The Indiana Legislation and its background
Others on the internet have already done a good job of outlining the background and operation of the Indiana law, here, here, here and especially here. But it may be helpful just to run through it again.
First, the Act itself. Despite what you might think from reading about it on some websites, it is not called the “License to Discriminate Act” or anything similar. Here is a link to the whole thing- it isn’t very long. It is the “Religious Freedom Restoration Act”, due to commence operation on July 1, 2015, as chapter 9 of the Indiana Code. The legislation sets up the principle that if the Government or some other public entity of Indiana wants to interfere with religious freedom, then they have to show that there is some compelling reason, and that they have chosen the least burdensome way of dealing with it. The core provision is s 8:
Sec. 8. (a) Except as provided in subsection (b), a governmental entity may not substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion, even if the burden results from a rule of general applicability. (b) A governmental entity may substantially burden a person’s exercise of religion only if the governmental entity demonstrates that application of the burden to the person:
(1) is in furtherance of a compelling governmental interest; and
(2) is the least restrictive means of furthering that compelling governmental interest.
Is this a radical new idea? No. Some 19 other States of the US have enacted similar legislation, most of them called by the same name, RFRA. The reason for the name is that this State legislation is modelled on Federal legislation which was enacted back in 1993 by the US Congress (almost completely unanimously, and signed with great celebration by President Clinton and Vice-President Gore.) That legislation was thought to be needed because in a very narrow interpretation of the “free exercise of religion” clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, the US Supreme Court in Employment Division v Smith 494 US 872 (1990) had held that there would be no protection for freedom of religion when Congress had enacted a “neutral law” (i.e. one not specifically targeted at religion) of general application. This effectively removed a lot of protection for religious freedom that had previously been applied by the Supreme Court, and the RFRA was designed to “restore” this previously enjoyed religious freedom. (See my previous post on the “Muslim prisoner beard” case which describes the operation of similar legislation.)
The effect of the legislation, then, is to provide some protection for people who have serious religious objections to complying with a law that otherwise applies to everyone in the community. An Amish person, for example, may not want to have their photo taken because they believe this breaches prohibitions on making “graven images”; their right here will have to be balanced against the State’s general interest in identifying drivers through photo licenses.
The Indiana RFRA does go slightly beyond some of the other State laws of a similar nature, though not radically so. First, it provides protection for religious freedom of some corporate entities, as well as for that of individuals. Under s 7 the definition of “person” extends to companies where persons who have “control and substantial ownership of the entity” have shared religious beliefs. In doing so it departs from all but one other State RFRA. However, most of those other Acts were passed before the US Supreme Court handed down its decision in the Hobby Lobby case in 2014, where a majority of the court held that the word “person” in the almost identical Federal RFRA extended to include “closely held corporations”, where religious beliefs of the corporate owners could be identified. So in effect the Indiana RFRA is really mostly recognising the reality of the way all the similar legislation will have to now be interpreted, since the US Supreme Court has provided that authoritative ruling.
The second point of distinction for the Indiana law is that it can be invoked as a defence in litigation between private individuals, not just in a case against the government. Section 9 provides that a person whose religious freedom is burdened
may assert the violation or impending violation as a claim or defense in a judicial or administrative proceeding, regardless of whether the state or any other governmental entity is a party to the proceeding.
(The drafting is a bit odd here. While s 9 seems to indicate religious freedom can be a “claim” in actions involving private parties, s 10 of the Act when describing the result of such an action simply says that the court “shall allow a defense against any party”, while adding that other remedies such as an award of damages may be sought from a “government party”. I think on balance the “defence” operation is what is intended here in private party cases.)
The application of the RFRA to private party cases is only explicitly provided for in one other State RFRA. However, other State courts have interpreted their laws to allow such actions, so again it is not unique.
Allowing bars to deny service to gays?
What, then, does all that have to do with “anti-gay” laws and refusing service in bars? Well, not very much. But it is true that the law might apply in some cases involving gay couples. In a previous blog post I discussed a series of cases involving “wedding service providers”, where it has been suggested or found that someone declining to provide photography, florist or baking services to support same sex marriage was guilty of “sexual orientation discrimination”.
Proponents of the Indiana law do think that this legislation might allow a better balancing of “freedom of religion” with the right to “freedom from discrimination” than has previously been provided in these cases. Where a wedding service provider with a genuine religious belief that same sex relationships are sinful, is asked to provide support and celebration to such a relationship, it does indeed seem to be a substantial burden on their religious freedom. To support the validity of such a rule, the government would need to show that the law furthered a “compelling government interest” and did so in a way which was the “least restrictive means”.
There is no guarantee, of course, that the provider would win their case. The court will still have to weigh up these important issues. However, it would seem to be at least arguable that, where there was no real shortage of such services elsewhere in the community, presumably from providers who would actually provide a better service because they genuinely wanted to assist in the celebration of the union, it would seem to be burdensome and achieving no real gain to dragoon a believer into reluctantly providing the service (or else giving up their livelihood).
But notice that the effect of the law, even if were applied in this way, is incredibly limited. It does not authorise wholesale denial of services to gay persons! (Indeed, there is quite some irony here in the fact that Indiana as a State does not have any general prohibition on sexual orientation discrimination anyway. So at the moment, in most of the State, there is no obligation to serve a gay couple to which the RFRA would provide a defence. Still, some local city laws do have such provisions, so the issue is a live one in some areas of the State.)
No- the provision would only operate where there was a genuine religious belief (and courts are more than capable of making judgments about these things), and where there was a plausible case that what was being requested went against the belief. No religion that I know of requires bartenders to refuse to serve homosexual persons! Indeed, there is a very important threshold issue in all the “wedding provider” cases, that to decline to support the institution of same sex marriage may not of itself amount to discrimination against homosexuals. Many “straight” persons support same sex marriage; some gay persons do not. Arguably refusing to support the institution is not relevant “discrimination”. (This argument was rejected in two of the cases mentioned in my previous post, but I think it still ought to be considered.)
So- the Indiana law is not the “anti-gay” monster that it has been painted. It would take another blog post to properly analyse the reasons why it has been so painted, and the way that the mainstream media picks up on distorted views of the law without checking for themselves. But that seems to be the situation. Of course persons of good will may still disagree about the balance to be struck in these areas. But it would be nice if arguments were made in light of the facts, instead of being put forward from mere prejudice. The “lost freedom” of free exercise of religion is being diminished to the point of vanishing in some of this discourse.
Australia and similar issues
Finally, then, how are these issues being dealt with in Australia? And how might they be resolved here?
As I have previously noted, there is no over-arching religious freedom protection in Australia. A Federal prohibition on sexual orientation discrimination, if it was thought to be breached by a wedding service provider, might in theory be challenged under s 116 of the Constitution as an “undue” infringement of religious freedom (to quote Latham CJ from the JW’s case noted in the previous post.) However, the interpretation of the free exercise clause here has in the past been just as narrow as the Smith approach in the US, so it is quite unclear whether this would be useful.
At the State level some States have a Charter of Rights which provides some protection for religious freedom. And most States, where they have discrimination legislation, include some type of “balancing clause” to protect such freedom. However, in most such legislation that protection is extended to “religious organisations”, not to individuals. (Interestingly, such a provision in the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act 1975 was held to allow an evangelical group, the Wesley Mission, to decline to place a child for fostering with a same sex couple, in OW & OV v Members of the Board of the Wesley Mission Council [2010] NSWADT 293 (10 December 2010).)
One notable exception to the rule that most “balancing provisions” apply to religious organisations is Victoria, where s 84 of the Equal Opportunity Act 2010 (applying to “persons” generally) provides:
Religious beliefs or principles
Nothing in Part 4 applies to discrimination by a person against another person on the basis of that person’s religious belief or activity, sex, sexual orientation, lawful sexual activity, marital status, parental status or gender identity if the discrimination is reasonably necessary for the first person to comply with the doctrines, beliefs or principles of their religion.
While the provision seems at first glance very broadly worded, any fears that it might prove a “license to discriminate” against gay people can probably be laid to rest in light of the decision of the Victorian Court of Appeal in the CYC v Cobaw (2014) case, noted previously. There the Court read the provision so narrowly that a group called “Christian Youth Camps” and their manager were not able to rely on their commitment to a conservative view of Biblical sexual morality in declining to take a booking for a week whose stated aim was to “normalise” homosexual behaviour to a group of young people.
While there have so far been no reported cases in Australia involving “wedding industry” religious believers declining commissions to assist in celebration of same sex ceremonies, this may mostly relate to the fact that same sex marriage is still not recognised in Australia. (For good reasons, in my view.) Should it become legal, or should there be some move to formalise “de facto” same sex relationships with “wedding-like” ceremonies, then these questions may arise. In my view it would be sensible for Australian governments to consider enacting religious protection laws which would allow appropriate balancing of rights. Of course the furore over the Indiana laws may discourage politicians from daring to do so (as indeed may be its purpose). But I would encourage those responsible for lawmaking to remember their commitments to govern for the good of all the citizens in a democracy, not just those with the loudest voice in the media.
Submission on Religious Freedom in Australia
Recently the Australian Law Reform Commission has had a consultation on Rights and Freedoms in Australia. Just the sort of thing I should have made a submission to, you might think. And so did I; except that, in the rush of getting ready for semester 1 teaching the Feb 27 deadline made a whooshing sound as it rushed by! So I was immensely pleased to discover that Freedom 4 Faith, an Australian group set up to further religious freedom, had put forward an excellent submission; in fact, far better than the one I might have prepared! I encourage you to read it. The submission clearly sets out the international obligations Australia has to protect religious freedom, the various limits on religious freedom, and how they should be approached. In particular it identifies very clearly the fact that there is a lingering tendency in those from the “mainstream” human rights area to cast religious freedom in a secondary role, even if they do so because they are unaware of their own presuppositions. See, for example, the paragraph in the ALRC discussion paper noted on page 4 of the F4F submission, where protection of religious freedom is simply labelled “discrimination” and a warning is issued about the needs of “vulnerable” people. The F4F paper clearly but politely points out some of these issues and proposes a model which would better balance out the right to religious freedom and the right to be free from discrimination. I hope that the ALRC will give it a great deal of weight in coming up with their final proposals later in the year.
The florist, the baker and the photographer- religious freedom and small business
One of the most vexed questions in the religious freedom area at the moment is the clash between religious views and support for same sex marriage, and three cases in which this clash has been evidenced all involve people in what might be called the “wedding support industries”- a florist, a baker and a photographer. The most recent is the decision of the Benton County Superior Court in the US State of Washington in the combined proceedings in State of Washington v Arlene’s Flowers Inc, Ingersoll & Freed v Arlene’s Flowers Inc (Ekstrom J, Nos 13-2-00871-5, 13-2-00953-3; 18 Feb 2015). There Barronelle Stutzmann, proprietor of the business, and her firm, were held liable for breaching the State’s anti-discrimination laws prohibiting denial of a service on the basis of sexual orientation. Stutzmann, who had supplied one of the complaints, Ingersoll, with flowers for some time, declined to do so on the occasion that he invited her to do the flowers for his proposed same sex wedding, on the basis of her Christian commitment and a desire not to support such a ceremony.
Stutzmann’s claim that her refusal to provide the flowers was not based on the sexual orientation of the client (whom she had often served previously), but rather on her desire not to express support for same sex marriage, was rejected by the court. She tried to rely (see lines 12-15 on p 28 of the linked transcript) on the distinction between conduct and orientation (as to which see my previous post, referring to other cases where this distinction has been not recognised by the courts, and one where it has.) But the court rejected the distinction, saying that there was US Supreme Court authority refusing to recognise it. In Christian Legal Society v Martinez 561 US 661 (2010) at 689, the Supreme Court held that a University legal society could not decline to have as leaders those who engaged in or supported same sex intimacy, refusing to draw a distinction between “status and conduct”. The Washington court held, following the earlier decision in Elane Photography (see below), that same sex marriage was “inextricably tied” to sexual orientation.
The claim that this was in breach of Stutzmann’s religious freedom rights was rejected on the basis that, in accordance with the prevailing judicial interpretation of the First Amendment, Employment Division v Smith 494 US 872 (1990), religious views must give way before a law of “neutral application” not targeted at religion.
The case of the wedding photographer proved influential here. In Elane Photography, LLC v Willock, 309 P 3d 53 (NM, 2013) a wedding photographer who declined to take on the photography duties for a same sex commitment ceremony was also found guilty of sexual orientation discrimination and fined, the US Supreme Court refusing to grant leave to appeal from the decision of the New Mexico Supreme Court.
Across the Atlantic, similar issues have arisen for a firm of bakers, Ashers Baking Company, who declined to produce a cake supporting same sex marriage when requested to do so. See here for more details. This case seems all the more odd, as it was not requested for the celebration of anyone’s wedding; it was simply to bear a slogan in support of introducing same sex marriage into Northern Ireland, which does not yet recognise the institution. While there has as yet been no hearing, the local Equality Commission has brought proceedings against the firm for sexual orientation discrimination.
In each of these cases, the last especially but also in the others, it seems arguable that what is involved is not discrimination against persons of a particular orientation, but a refusal to provide support for an institution (same sex marriage) which is regarded as morally wrong. There does indeed seem to be a valid difference between simple provision of a service (as had often been done by Ms Stutzmann, for example) and the purchase of the artistic skills and talents of a person to celebrate and support the event of a same sex wedding. The courts, if they were minded to, could implement this distinction by finding that refusal to provide artistic support for the event was not in fact unlawful “sexual orientation discrimination”. After all, not all homosexual persons believe that same sex marriage is a good idea. The fact of homosexual identity and support for same sex marriage are not, as the courts seem to think, “inextricably linked”. If the courts are unable to implement the distinction because of previous binding rulings, then legislators could choose to do so. It is suggested they should do so, and provide a clear avenue for recognition of religious freedom in the context of state support for discrimination laws. The comments of the Washington court here, that once same sex marriage had been introduced into Washington State there was a “direct and insoluble conflict between Stutzmann’s religiously motivated conduct and the laws of the State of Washington” (lines 12-13 on p 58), are with respect too pessimistic. There are other avenues where both important interests can be recognised.
Sexual orientation and sexual behaviour: can they be distinguished?
Should the employee of a religious organisation be allowed to be dismissed because of her sexual activities outside work? A recent Australian decision suggests, somewhat surprisingly, that she may be. I will explain here why I believe the court was correct. In Bunning v Centacare [2015] FCCA 280 (11 February 2015) an employee of a Catholic family counselling centre was dismissed because of her involvement in support for “polyamorous” activities. She claimed to have been discriminated against on the basis of her sexual orientation, but the claim was dismissed.
Distinguishing between orientation and behaviour- previous cases
By way of background, one of the most difficult issues in the interaction between religious freedom and sexual orientation anti-discrimination law arises when a believer makes a decision which is based on a person’s sexual activity, and it is claimed that in fact the decision was based on sexual “orientation”. This dilemma arises because, unlike most other prohibited grounds of discrimination, “sexual orientation” discrimination involves serious ethical dilemmas for those who adhere to traditional religious beliefs on sexual morality. That is, long-standing religious views (not only in Christianity but also in Islam and Judaism, for example) teach that same sex sexual behaviour is actually wrong, and contrary to God’s purposes for humanity. But one of the defining characteristics of a person who is of a homosexual “orientation” is a preference (to use a possibly controversial word) for sexual activity with a person of the same sex.
Sometimes believers, when challenged that their decisions are based on sexual orientation, have attempted to argue that in fact those decisions are based on sexual behaviour. That is, the claim is made that there is no intention to investigate someone’s personal preferences or “inclination”; but that engaging in what the religion regards as immoral behaviour, homosexual intercourse, can be a legitimate reason for making a distinction of some sort. An argument of this sort was run in the UK decision in Bull & Bull v Hall & Preddy [2013] UKSC 73 (27 November 2013). There the Christian owners of a boarding house had enforced for some years a rule that they would not let a double-bed room to any couple who were not married. A same sex couple were turned away from the room on this basis and sued for sexual orientation discrimination. The UK Supreme Court upheld the award of damages against the Bulls. In particular, they commented at one point as to whether it made a difference that it was the “status of marriage” which was the criterion for the decision, or not. (At the time same sex couples could not marry each other in the UK.) The majority of the court held that this did not make a difference. In particular, Lady Hale commented in this way on the argument that one could distinguish a decision made on the basis of sexual behaviour, from one made on the basis of orientation:
[52] Sexual orientation is a core component of a person’s identity which requires fulfilment through relationships with others of the same orientation. As Justice Sachs of the South African Constitutional Court movingly put it in National Coalition for Gay and Lesbian Equality v Minister of Justice, 1999 (1) SA 6, para 117:
“While recognising the unique worth of each person, the Constitution does not presuppose that a holder of rights is an isolated, lonely and abstract figure possessing a disembodied and socially disconnected self. It acknowledges that people live in their bodies, their communities, their cultures, their places and their times. The expression of sexuality requires a partner, real or imagined.”
This view, that sexual orientation requires expression in intercourse, and hence that any distinction based on the behaviour will also be a distinction based on orientation, was also affirmed in a recent Australian decision, Christian Youth Camps Limited v Cobaw Community Health Service Limited and Mark Rowe [2014] VSCA 75 (16 April 2014) (for detailed comment on this case see my previous post and linked articles.) The Court there rejected an argument that in denying a booking to a group that was lobbying for the “normalisation” of homosexuality, the Christian group concerned was not basing its decision on the orientation of the group members, but (impliedly) on their “behaviour” of lobbying for a particular viewpoint. Maxwell P supported comments that had been made by the Tribunal below, which were to the effect that sexual orientation is “part of a person’s being or identity” and that:
To distinguish between an aspect of a person’s identity, and conduct which accepts that aspect of identity, or encourages people to see that part of identity as normal, or part of the natural and healthy range of human identities, is to deny the right to enjoyment and acceptance of identity. (at [57])
(See also Redlich JA: “sexual orientation [is] inextricably interwoven with a person’s identity” (at [442]).)
Against this background, it is very interesting to find this recent decision that clearly distinguishes between “orientation” and “behaviour”, and finds against a dismissed claimant on these grounds.
Bunning v Centacare
In the Bunning case, Ms Bunning worked in a Catholic family counselling centre in a senior position. (While operating under the “brand” of “Centacare”, the Respondent’s full name from the case documents was “THE CORPORATION OF THE TRUSTEE OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC ARCHDIOCESE OF BRISBANE TRADING AS CENTACARE”, and hence it was clear that Centacare was a direct emanation of the Church.)
The Applicant’s own documents revealed the following (see [7]):
her contact details as a counsellor at Centacare [had been] published on a website for the Brisbane Poly Group. These details had been originally published in or around late 2011, or early 2012, following a request from the group for the contact details of a ‘poly-friendly’ counsellor. The Brisbane Poly Group is a group of people involved and/or interested in the polyamorous lifestyle.
The website details had been brought to the attention of her employer, and on this basis her employment was terminated. Para [11] describes the events in the Applicant’s words:
(e) Furthermore, during the meeting the Applicant was told that the ‘Brisbane Poly Group’ goes against the ethics and moral teachings of the Catholic Church and that such a lifestyle would be in conflict with those teachings.
(f) The Applicant was told that she was to be dismissed instantly for gross misconduct.
The claim under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (“SDA”) was that the Applicant had been dismissed, or else put at a disadvantage, on the basis of her “sexual orientation”, and hence there had been a breach of the Act, s 14. Judge Vasta had to determine whether “being polyamorous” was a relevant sexual orientation. His Honour concluded that it was not. He referred to the Macquarie Dictionary definition of “polyamory” as
“The mating pattern of having a number of sexual partners at the same time” – [41] (emphasis in original)
As such the term referred to a certain type of behaviour. But, his Honour said, the word “orientation” as a “state of being” rather than actual behaviour:
[29] Under the Act, sexual orientation is how one is, rather than how one manifests that state of being. The manifestation of that state of being can take many forms. Those forms are what we know as “sexual behaviour”.
He concluded that the Applicant had shown that she adopted polyamorous behaviour, but had not demonstrated that this was a relevant orientation. In a very interesting passage worth quoting at length, he continued:
[33] In argument before me, the Applicant contends that “behaviour” is a “sub-set” of an orientation and therefore is covered by the definition in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984.
[34] If the contention of the Applicant were correct, many people whose sexual activity might label them as sado-masochists, coprophiliacs or urophiliacs could claim that such is more than mere behaviour; it is in fact their very sexual orientation. If the contention were correct, then the illegal activities of paedophilia and necrophilia may have the protection of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth). Such a result would be an absurdity.
[35] This is because sexual orientation is something far more than how one behaves sexually. Many religious persons take a vow of chastity and do not behave sexually at all. Yet they still can have a sexual orientation under the definition in the Sex Discrimination Act 1984. This is because their behaviour does not define their orientation.
Having noted that as a matter of legislative history, Parliament had declined to include “lawful sexual behaviour” as an alternative ground of discrimination, his Honour concluded:
[39]…I am led to the inexorable conclusion that “sexual orientation”, as the term is used in s. 4 of the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth), covers only that which it expressly covers, i.e., the state of being. It does not cover behaviours.
Hence the claim for sexual orientation discrimination failed, as the Applicant had not shown that the basis of the decision was a “condition” or “state of being” recognised under the SDA as a prohibited ground.
Comments
The decision in this case is interesting, as previously noted, because it seems to run counter to a tendency in other decisions to treat “orientation” and “behaviour” as interchangeable. It has to be said, however, that the implications of the decision are unclear. The Federal Circuit Court is a successor to the court that was previously called the “Federal Magistrates’ Court”. It is not high up in the Australian court hierarchy, and indeed it seems likely that formally its decisions do not form a precedent for any other courts. The decision here could of course go on appeal to the Federal Court “proper”.
In addition, neither of the judgments noted above, Bull and CYC v Cobaw, seem to have been cited to Judge Vasta. However, it should be noted that the case did not concern the question of “homosexual” orientation, and hence did not directly engage the issues which led to the previous comments. Polyamory, of course, as a formal “lifestyle” (as Judge Vasta noted, the term used by the Applicant herself) is not commonly spoken of as an “orientation”. A claim for discrimination on this basis feels more like a claim for discrimination on the basis of “marital status”, which does indeed focus on behaviour. The definition of “marital status” in s 4(1) of the SDA assumes that there is only one other party to the relationship- see e.g. para (e) “the de facto partner of another person” (emphasis added). Presumably if Parliament had intended to protect persons in multiple relationships, it could easily have referred to “person or persons”.
On balance, it seems that his Honour’s decision is correct. Whether the broadly expressed comments about the difference between “orientation” and “behaviour” will be adopted in later proceedings is more doubtful, but it is to be hoped that they are given due weight. Christians, to take one example, are well used to distinguishing between a “propensity” to behave in a certain way, and the actual behaviour. The Bible teaches that all people are by nature inclined to sinful behaviour, but sees nothing inconsistent in urging people at the same time to resist the temptation to do so. In other areas of life even modern Western society recognises the fact that someone may be, for example, an alcoholic, and regularly tempted to drink to access, but can commend and encourage that person not to act on their impulses and to resist the temptation. Whether this situation is analogous to the orientation of a person to have sex with others of the same sex is a matter of great debate. But it does not seem unreasonable that religious believers ought to be able to make the case that there is a difference between the two concepts of propensity and activity, and to argue that in some cases there is a valid distinction to be made between them.
Finally, it should be noted that even if the Applicant had been able to establish a prima facie case of sex discrimination, it seems possible that the Church would have had a defence under s 37(1)(d) SDA, which says that the earlier provisions prohibiting sex discrimination do not apply to:
any other act or practice of a body established for religious purposes, being an act or practice that conforms to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of that religion or is necessary to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion.
Clearly the practice of having multiple sexual partners at the same time (which of course would mean at least one of them was not married to the Applicant) would run contrary to the moral teaching of the Roman Catholic Church. Since the role of Centacare was to counsel on family relationships, presumably the counselling was designed to be given in accordance with those moral teachings, and it would be a fundamental contradiction of those teachings for the church to employ a counsellor whose lifestyle was a living repudiation of those teachings. No doubt, in addition, many members of the Catholic Church would be offended by a person in this situation purporting to deliver counsel on behalf of the Church. On this basis it seems fairly clear that s 37 would have been engaged and entitled the Church to dismiss the Applicant, even if there had been “sexual orientation discrimination”.
However, as clear as this may seem, it has to be said that there is now some doubt about the application of s 37 since the earlier-mentioned decision in CYC v Cobaw, where it was queried whether a religious organisation’s views on sexual behaviour could be said to be part of their fundamental “beliefs” or “doctrines”. As discussed in my previous notes on the case, however, I take the view that the decision of the NSW Court of Appeal on this issue in OV & OW v MEMBERS OF THE BOARD OF THE WESLEY MISSION COUNCIL [2010] NSWCA 155 is binding on lower courts (as an earlier decision on the point by an appellate court) and should be followed on this issue. Christian doctrines on marriage and sexual behaviour have been a fundamental part of the Church’s teaching from the earliest days and were clearly intended by Parliament to be relevant in these contexts.
Religious organisations and their employees- new US decision
Can a religious organisation hire and fire staff in accordance, not just with their commitment to its doctrinal beliefs, but also on the basis of whether they conform to moral teachings? This was the issue in the background of a recent US decision, and it is interesting to note how this might play out in Australia.
The Conlon decision
The United States (Federal) Court of Appeals, 6th Circuit, has just handed down its decision on appeal in Conlon v InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA (No 14-1549, 5 Feb 2015), holding that Ms Conlon, who was dismissed as a “spiritual director” by IVCF, cannot file a Federal (or State) sex discrimination claim against the organisation. IVCF is an organisation that operates on many University campuses in the US, supporting evangelical gospel ministry there. (Full disclosure in case it is relevant: I have been a long time supporter of the Australian Fellowship of Evangelical Students, AFES, a similar organisation in this country which is, like IVCF/USA, a part of a wider global network, the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students, IFES.) Ms Conlon worked from 2004-2011 as a “spiritual director” assisting IVCF staff workers in their spiritual growth. When she started discussing problems within her marriage, and in particular flagged her possible divorce in March 2011, IVCF supervisors put her on paid leave to support her while dealing with this issue. When by the end of 2011 that seemed not to be working, her employment was terminated in December 2011.
The employment conditions for IVCF staff, which were made clear by the organisation from the outset, required that staff annually reaffirm their commitment to the IVCF Purpose Statement and Doctrinal Basis. The court quotes early in their decision a phrase (which I assume comes from the Purpose Statement), to the effect that
IVCF “believes in the sanctity of marriage and desires that all married employees honor their marriage vows.”
Presumably the IVCF leaders, although the decision does not make this clear, took the view that Ms Conlon would, if she were divorced, not provide an appropriate model of Christian behaviour in this area. I want to be clear that I am not making any comment on the rights and wrongs of this decision. Despite my general support for IFES and its affiliates, I know nothing about the decision in this case and whether it was godly, wise or justified. In fact, it somewhat disturbs me that the court notes that Ms Conlon alleges that two similarly situated male employees were divorced while working for IVCF, but were not disciplined or terminated (see p 3 of the decision.) But of course there are divorces and divorces, and difficult decision have to be made in these circumstances.
The fact that life can be so messy, and that decisions about who should be employed in spiritual leadership are so dependent on a number of fuzzy criteria, may be partly what lies behind the doctrine of the “ministerial exception” in US law, which was successfully relied on here by IVCF. Formally the doctrine is driven by the First Amendment to the US Constitution, forbidding the Establishment of a state church (and excessive “entanglement” by the state in religious groups) and setting out rights of Free Exercise of religion. The doctrine has been applied by lower courts for a while, but received endorsement by the US Supreme Court for the first time a few years ago in its decision in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church & School v EEOC, 132 S Ct 694 (2012). I discussed this decision in detail in an earlier paper, but in brief the main relevant part is that the USSC held (somewhat surprisingly for a religion clause decision, unanimously) that Federal employment discrimination laws could not apply to “claims concerning the employment relationship between a religious institution and its ministers” (at 705).
Applying Hosanna-Tabor, the 6th Circuit here held that IVCF clearly qualified as a “religious organisation” (not only its name, but its mission statement and activities were all directed to religious ends), and that the position that Ms Conlon held of “spiritual director” satisfied at least 2 of the 4 criteria set out by the SC for an employee being regarded as a “minister” : the title of her role, “spiritual” director, and the religious functions she carried out, being responsible for assisting the “spiritual growth” of other IVCF staff. (See the discussion at pp 7-8: the court did not explicitly find that the other 2 factors were not present, being formal theological training and use of the title in public contexts; they just held that there was not enough evidence to make a finding. But the other 2 factors were, in this case, sufficient.)
The result was that under the authority of Hosanna-Tabor the court could not entertain a claim for discrimination under federal law; and they also ruled that since the decision was based on the Constitutional rights granted under the First Amendment, and it had long been held that the First Amendment applied to the States as well as to the Federal Congress, nor could a claim under State law be made (see pp 10-11.)
Australian law?
How would this matter be resolved under Australian law? I will comment on the application of the Federal legislation, the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 (Cth) (‘SDA’)- I think a similar analysis would apply under most State laws.
Under the SDA there would be a possible prima facie claim that a decision to dismiss someone because of their divorce would be discrimination based on “marital or relationship status”, which is one of the alternative grounds of unlawful discrimination in employment- see s 6, and the definition of “marital or relationship status” which includes the state of being “divorced”. I am not sure, in fact, whether this is a claim that would be possible under US law- the court in Conlon refers simply to the differential treatment of divorced men as opposed to the claimant, who is a woman. Under the SDA that might also give rise to a straightforward gender-based discrimination claim under s 5(1), whereby by reason of
(a) the sex of the aggrieved person…. the discriminator treats the aggrieved person less favourably than, in circumstances that are the same or are not materially different, the discriminator treats or would treat a person of a different sex.
Under s 14(2)(c), in Division 1 of Part II, it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate on the basis of marital or relationship status, or sex, “by dismissing the employee.”
While there is no general Hosanna-Tabor principle under Australian law, there are “balancing provisions” in the SDA designed to protect the religious freedom of certain organisations. Under s 37(1) in Part II:
(1) Nothing in Division 1 or 2 affects:
(a) the ordination or appointment of priests, ministers of religion or members of any religious order;
(b) the training or education of persons seeking ordination or appointment as priests, ministers of religion or members of a religious order;
(c) the selection or appointment of persons to perform duties or functions for the purposes of or in connection with, or otherwise to participate in, any religious observance or practice; or
(d) any other act or practice of a body established for religious purposes, being an act or practice that conforms to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of that religion or is necessary to avoid injury to the religious susceptibilities of adherents of that religion.
Should a local student religious group dismiss a staff-worker in similar circumstances to those in Conlon, then it would need to show that the circumstances fell within s 37. It would probably be difficult to establish that a student staff-worker was a “minister of religion” under paras (a) and (b). It is possible that para (c) could apply but that would depend whether a “religious observance or practice” was broad enough to cover not just “rituals” but also the general practice of evangelism and bible studies, for example. Para (d) would probably apply: a group of this sort would be a “body established for religious purposes”, and the “practice that conforms to the doctrines, tenets or beliefs of that religion” would be arguably the policy of requiring staff members to conform to Biblical standards of sexual behaviour, including practices in relation to divorce. Possibly the bar would be set a bit higher in Australian than in the US: whereas under Hosanna-Tabor the court would not even begin to inquire into the religious criteria used, in Australia the organisation might need to make a plausible case that their decision could be justified by a set of doctrines and beliefs that were at least a possible reading of their religious tradition.
There a number of uncertainties, then, as to how an Australian court would deal with these matters. Those uncertainties are unfortunately compounded by the differing views expressed in the Victorian Court of Appeal decision in Christian Youth Camps v Cobaw [2014] VSCA 75, discussed in a previous post. One reading of Cobaw might suggest that matters of sexual behaviour, even decisions about divorce, were not part of the “doctrines, tenets or beliefs” of a Christian organisation (a view I would disagree with.) Another issue is that whether any disciplinary action taken “conforms” to those beliefs, so that the court would be given the task of coming up with an authoritative interpretation of the Biblical material on divorce! (A matter that mainstream Christian churches, and groups within churches, have disagreed on for the last 2000 years…)
In my view, despite what was said in Cobaw, the best approach is for the courts to grant a wide “margin of appreciation” (to use a phrase drawn from European jurisprudence) to religious groups, so that so long as a decision seems to be made in a good faith and consistent interpretation of their own doctrines (not in a “sham” way to achieve a particular outcome), then courts should recognise their freedom to determine who is suitable to work in key positions in these organisations. But whether this is the way that courts go in Australia remains to be seen.
Update- Religious Freedom and a Canadian Law School
In a previous post I noted the ongoing controversy over whether Trinity Western University, in British Columbia, Canada, can train lawyers who will be able to practice in Canada. TWU as a Christian University requires its students to agree to comply with a Code of Conduct, part of which bans all sexual intimacy outside the traditional marriage between a man and woman. TWU’s Law program has actually been approved by the Canadian national accrediting body, the Federation of Canadian Law Societies. But as noted previously, a number of individual Provincial Law Societies have now indicated that, due to the Covenant being viewed as discrimination against persons on the basis of their sexual orientation, TWU graduates will not be admitted to practice law in those Provinces.
The first decision in what may be a number of judicial challenges to the refusal of Law Societies to accept TWU future graduates was handed down on 28 January 2015 in Nova Scotia. In Trinity Western University v Nova Scotia Barristers’ Society, 2015 NSSC 25, Justice Campbell of the Nova Scotia Supreme Court ruled in favour of TWU. (See press summary here.) His Honour held that the NSBS had acted beyond its powers by changing its rules to refuse to accept TWU graduates whose law degrees had been approved by the Federal FCLS, especially as it was accepted that there was no evidence that TWU graduates would unlawfully discriminate against anybody on the basis of their sexuality. In addition, his Honour held that the NSBS in making its decision was under a duty under the Canadian Charter to take into account the religious freedom rights of TWU students and graduates, and had not done so appropriately. Just a minor point- the final ruling is summed up in para [270] of the decision; the version available on the web today I think accidentally omits the word “not” from the final sentence in that paragraph. But the rest of the decision makes it crystal clear that his Honour thinks that
The NSBS resolution and regulation infringe on the freedom of religion of TWU and its students in a way that cannot be justified. The rights, Charter values and regulatory objectives were not reasonably balanced within a margin of appreciation. (word added)
it will surprise no-one who has read my previous paper on the issues that I agree entirely with the Judge’s decision. If I can say so with due respect, the decision is remarkable for both its learning, its clarity and the breadth of the issues covered, while remaining clearly focussed on the relevant issues. I recommend anyone interested in the balancing of religious freedom with anti-discrimination rights to read it carefully.
Protection of Religious Freedom in Australia
Since today is Australia Day, it seems like an appropriate occasion to make some comments about freedom of religion in Australia! Those of us who are blessed to live in this wonderful country have many things to be grateful for, and one of them is a tradition of free exercise of religion. However, this right is not protected here in precisely the same way as it is protected in other jurisidictions which share our common law heritage. In this post I want to outline briefly how the law protects freedom of religion in Australia.
One of the key features of the Australia legal system is that we are a Federation, governed by a written Constitution. The Commonwealth Parliament is given certain specific areas in which it can legislate; the States hold the “residual” powers of legislation, although if the Commonwealth has passed a valid law it can over-ride State law on that topic. This Federal division of powers is an important background to considering how religious freedom is protected.
A. Religious Freedom Protection under Commonwealth law
The Commonwealth Constitution contains a clear restriction on Federal law-making powers, designed to protect religious freedom. This is s 116 of the Constitution:
Commonwealth not to legislate in respect of religion
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The Commonwealth shall not make any law for establishing any religion, or for imposing any religious observance, or for prohibiting the free exercise of any religion, and no religious test shall be required as a qualification for any office or public trust under the Commonwealth.
(Of course s 116 also deals with “establishment” issues, whether the Commonwealth can create or support a religious body, and religious tests. But for today we will focus on the “free exercise” clause.)
The provision is similar to, and was enacted in clear knowledge of, similar words in the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States of America. But it has become clear in later interpretation that the High Court of Australia, in the few cases where the provision has been considered, will not automatically follow the US Supreme Court. There are only a half dozen High Court decisions dealing with the free exercise clause of s 116; to my mind the most important, and still the best, of these decisions is the WW2 era decision of Adelaide Company of Jehovah’s Witnesses Inc v Commonwealth (1943) 67 CLR 116.
Briefly, the issue that arose in that case was one which is still a hot topic today: where do we draw the line between protecting religious freedom, and protecting national security? During World War 2, the theology of the JW’s involved the views that all organised political entities (up to and including the British Empire) were “organs of Satan”, and that it was the duty of all JW’s to not participate in human wars. In addition they would refuse to take an oath of allegiance to the King.
While these views were unpopular even in peacetime, at the height of World War 2, when many Australians were fighting and dying overseas for the British Empire, they were pretty explosive. So much so that under a general regulation-making power given by the National Security Act 1939 (Cth), regulations called the National Security (Subversive Associations) Regulations 1940 had been made, and under those regulations the Governor-General had declared the Jehovah’s Witnesses to be a subversive association, and the Commonwealth had taken over its main meeting centre.
The High Court held that the regulations were invalid. But interestingly for our purposes, the reason for their invalidity was not that they breached s 116! The court effectively held that they went beyond either the regulation-making power, or else beyond the Constitutional power involved, as being too far-reaching. In particular one of the features that struck the judges concerned was that under the Regulations organisations were prohibited from advocating “unlawful doctrines”, which were defined to include “any doctrine or principle advocated by a declared body”. Since the JW’s were within a tradition that honoured the Bible, their doctrine included such subversive tenets as the Ten Commandments! Overall 3 out of the 5 judges ruled that the regulations were too broad and were, in effect, a disproportionate response to the danger posed by the JW’s.
However, the court did consider the question whether, if the regulations were otherwise valid, they would have been contrary to s 116. I think the best of the judgments on this question was that of Latham CJ, who emphasised the importance of religious freedom, but held that in effect s 116 had to be read as posing the question whether a law amounts to an “undue” infringement of freedom of religion, taking into account other important interests (at 128). Hence a law which impaired religious freedom (as this law clearly did) would still be valid if it was aimed at achieving an important government interest (national security, here), so long as it was not an “undue” infringement of religion taking into account the importance of the interests.
Other judges read s 116 in slightly different ways, and later decisions of the High Court (most of which were comments in passing, rather than directly on this issue) offer a slightly narrower view of s 116. (See e.g. Kruger v Commonwealth (the “Stolen Generations case”) [1997] HCA 27; (1997) 190 CLR 1.) But it seems to me that Latham CJ’s decision captures the real importance of the provision, while recognising that it cannot provide “absolute” protection where other important interests are at stake.
An important point to note about s 116, however, is that it does not apply to laws passed by a State, as opposed to the Commonwealth. The wording of the provision is clearly limited to the Commonwealth (and here in Australia our High Court has not made the step that the US Supreme Court took in Cantwell v Connecticut 310 US 296 (1940) of extending the free exercise limb of the First Amendment to the States.) Indeed, there is some academic and judicial debate as to whether s 116 even extends to Federal Territories, which are set up under authority of Commonwealth laws (although I think that there are strong hints in recent High Court decisions that, should the issue come up today, the High Court would apply s 116 to a Territory law- see Wurridjal v Commonwealth (2009) 237 CLR 309, which extended a similar limitation on general Commonwealth law-making powers to govern Territorial laws.)
B. Protection of religious freedom other than through s 116
How is religious freedom protected in Australia, then, where s 116 does not apply (in particular, under State law?) There are a number of possibilities which have been put forward, which I will briefly note.
(a) Protection under International Conventions?
There are a number of important international treaties which protect religious freedom. Probably the most important one, which Australia has undertaken to be bound by, is the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (the ICCPR), s 18 of which provides for a broad right of religious freedom.
But under Australian law international treaties are not “incorporated” into our domestic law automatically; Parliaments need to take a further step and pass implementing laws. Unless the Commonwealth or a State/Territory enacts specific legislation, the most that can be said (and this argument has been run in a couple of cases) is that as a matter of judicial discretion in interpreting ambiguous legislation, the courts should presume that Parliament would intend to comply with international law (see Minister for Immigration and Ethnic Affairs v Teoh (1995) 183 CLR 273.) But so far no statute has been found to be sufficiently unclear in the area of religious freedom for this principle to be applied.
Of course international conventions can provide a model to encourage legislation, and as we will see in a moment there is some local legislation which to some extent specifically adopts the ICCPR. But it cannot be litigated on directly in domestic courts.
(b) Common law protection for religious freedom?
While the common law has a long tradition of protecting freedoms in general, there is not a strong common law religious freedom tradition. In fact, of course, the common law developed in a country (Great Britain) where there was an established church, the Church of England, and at various points in history there were legal disabilities imposed on those from other religions. In Grace Bible Church Inc v Reedman (1984) 36 SASR 376 the South Australian Supreme Court held that there was no implied principle of religious freedom constraining State laws.
On this question the most promising angle is the approach seen in a Federal Court decision, Evans v NSW [2008] FCAFC 130, where the Full Court in ruling on the invalidity of some regulations constraining religious comment during “World Youth Day”, that where legislation was ambiguous it would be interpreted so as to favour the internationally recognised right of religious freedom to the maximum extent possible, referring at para [79] to the fact that “[an] important freedom generally accepted in Australian society is freedom of religious belief and expression”.
(c) Protection under specific charters of rights
As most people are aware, Australia has no general Federal “Charter of Rights” (unlike the US or even, today, the UK where the European Convention on Human Rights has to some extent been incorporated into local law.) But individual jurisdictions have chosen to implement such charters, and both the State of Victoria (Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) s 14) and the Australian Capital Territory (Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) s 14) have enacted general human rights instruments which contain explicit protections for religious freedom.
(d) Discrimination laws and “Balancing provisions”
Freedom of religion is also protected in two different ways under legislation which prohibits unlawful discrimination around Australia. In most jurisdictions (all except NSW and the Commonwealth), one of the grounds of unlawful discrimination is religious belief, so that it would be unlawful to sack someone, or deny them services, on the grounds of their religious belief. Related to this, and also present in the other jurisdictions, are provisions of laws that are designed to “balance” religious freedom with the right not to be discriminated against. So that, for example, while there is a general prohibition on employment decisions being made on the basis of gender, all jurisdictions allow churches or other religious organisations to decide only to appoint male clergy, because that is seen by some religious groups as a key part of their teachings. Agree with these teachings or not, the law takes the view that it reasonably preserves the religious freedom of believers in these groups, and the groups as a whole, to allow their religious freedom to be exercised in this way.
Of course there is a great deal more that could be said about all these areas, but hopefully this will provide a useful overview of religious freedom protection in Australia. On the whole our history has been fairly free from serious religious conflicts, and it is be hoped that we can continue to enjoy the freedom to live in accordance with our fundamental beliefs, while respecting the rights of others.
