Karl Laird is a Lecturer in Law, St Edmund Hall, Oxford.|Karl Laird is a Lecturer in Law, St Edmund Hall, Oxford.|Karl Laird is a Lecturer in Law, St Edmund Hall, Oxford.
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The Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland on sexual orientation discrimination – justice served?
The facts of Ashers have been set out on this Blog previously, so only a brief recap is necessary here. The respondent was a gay man who ordered a cake from the appellant. He wanted a cake with a picture of Bert and Ernie along with ...
Steinfeld v Secretary of State for Education: Court of Appeal has Granted Leave to Appeal
It has recently been announced that the challenge to the prohibition on opposite sex couples entering into civil partnerships in England and Wales is due to be heard by the Court of Appeal in November 2016. This announcement provides ...
The Beginning Rather Than the End: Obergefell v Hodges and the Continuing Struggle for LGBT Equality
There is no doubt that the Supreme Court’s judgment in Obergefell v Hodges is an historic one. That is not to say, however, that the struggle for LGBT equality is over. Indeed, it may only have begun.
The judgment in Obergefell has ...
Let Them Buy (Gay) Cake: Anti-Discrimination in Northern Irish Courts
Over the weekend, the same-sex marriage referendum in Ireland dominated headlines around the world. The week before the referendum, the media’s attention was focused on Northern Ireland (‘NI’) and another case that touched upon ...
The US Constitutional Status of Same-Sex Marriage – An Issue that Can No Longer be Avoided
This week the Supreme Court of the United States will hear oral argument in what will no doubt be considered one of the most important civil rights cases of our generation. In Obergefell v Hodges (there are in fact four conjoined ...
Free Speech or Hate Speech? License Plates Drive SCOTUS to a Difficult Place
Despite the fact the American Civil War ended some 150 years ago, the symbols of that conflict continue to be deeply controversial in the United States. No symbol is more controversial than the flag of the Confederate States of ...
New Publication: ‘Whither the Prostitution Industry?’
Justice Dhaya Pillay, who last year was a visiting fellow at the Oxford Human Rights Hub, has published an article in the Industrial Law Journal entitled, 'Whither the Prostitution Industry?' (2014) 35 ILJ 1749. Justice Pillay's ...
Burwell v Hobby Lobby – a narrow decision?
This week the Supreme Court of the United States delivered judgment in the eagerly anticipated case of Burwell v Hobby Lobby, involving a challenge to a provision of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (known colloquially ...
What next for LGBT equality?
It has been almost a year since the Supreme Court of the United States delivered judgment in Windsor v United States and in the intervening twelve months there have been an increasing number of cases considering the constitutionality ...
Is it Time for the US Supreme Court to Come Out of the Closet?
In a follow-up post to his previous analysis of Windsor v. United States, Karl Laird examines which constitutional provisions were invoked in the US Supreme Court decision.
Now that a few weeks have passed since the US Supreme Court ...
The Questions Raised by Striking Down DOMA
In light of the release of Windsor v the United States, Karl Laird analyzes the US Supreme Court's reasoning, noting the Court still avoids the hard questions.
It took Justice Anthony Kennedy just 26 pages to give Edie Windsor what ...
The Case on Everybody’s Lips – How arguments in Windsor v US have been received by the commentators
It has been a week since the hearing in Windsor v United States. Karl Laird provides an interesting analysis of how commentators elsewhere are evaluating the arguments put before the US Supreme Court.
Over at the New York ...
