Freedom of Speech
Kristi Higgs wins her case at Court of Appeal in free speech victory
In a landmark ruling for freedom of speech, the Court of Appeal has reversed a ruling which defended the dismissal of Kristie Higgs from Farmor's School after she raised concerns on Facebook about extreme sex education being taught in her son's Church of England primary school.
The ruling confirms that the Equality Act does protect traditional Christian beliefs on social issues, including opposition to gender ideology and same-sex marriage.
In the judgement handed down by Lord Justice Underhill, Lord Justice Bean, Lady Justice Falk, it explained that the burden is on the employer to prove in the Employment Tribunal that any such dismissal, like that of Mrs Higgs, can be objectively justified and proved to be proportionate and necessary in a democratic society.
Mrs Higg's employer has tried to argue that it was justified in sacking her because of the language she used in her Facebook posts, not her Christian beliefs.
But the judges rejected this argument, saying:
There was no evidence that the reputation of the School had thus far been damaged: its concern was about potential damage in the future (see, again, the final paragraph of the passage in the dismissal letter quoted at para. 22 above). As it also accepted, there was no possibility that, even if readers of the posts associated the Claimant with the School, they would believe that they represented its own views.
The ruling is a significant one and is expected to be used in future cases to help safeguard the free speech rights of Christians and others who are unfairly dismissed from posts because of holding traditional views.
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