Northern Ireland’s attorney general cannot refer back to the supreme court the case of a local bakery fined for refusing to bake a gay-themed cake.
John Larkin QC’s legal bid to get the supreme court to review court rulings against Ashers Bakery was deemed to have come in too late, Northern Ireland’s lord chief justice said on Wednesday.
In October the court of appeal in Belfast upheld a conviction that found Ashers guilty of discrimination for refusing to bake a pro-same sex marriage themed cake.
The family-owned firm in the original case was also ordered to pay £500 compensation to the local gay rights activist Gareth Lee, whose legal action was backed by the Equality Commission for Northern Ireland.
Lee had tried to buy a cake depicting the Sesame Street characters Bert and Ernie below the motto “Support gay marriage” for an event to mark International Day Against Homophobia in 2014.
In his ruling on Wednesday the lord chief justice, Declan Morgan, said that the attorney general’s move came after the case against the McArthur family-owned firm had ended.
“We do not consider there are exceptional circumstances in this case which require us to re-open proceedings,” Sir Declan said in his judgement.
The rejection of Larkin’s request for a supreme court hearing came about after lawyers for the McArthur family were also refused a plea to appeal the verdict in the same court seven days ago.
The Ashers case has received international attention, and highlighted the tensions between gay rights reformers and the politically influential and socially conservative born-again Christian lobby within Northern Ireland.
Gareth Lee placed his order at Ashers Bakery shortly after the Democratic Unionist party used its power of veto in the Northern Ireland assembly to block moves to make gay marriage legal in the province. The region is the only part of the UK where same-sex marriage is still not recognised in law.
Lee claimed the baker’s refusal to bake his cake made him feel “like a lesser person” and so he made a formal complaint with the Equality Commission in Northern Ireland who acted on his behalf though the courts.
The DUP has a strong base in the province’s evangelical Christian community and was founded out of the late Dr Ian Paisley’s Free Presbyterian church. The party has consistently blocked proposals in the assembly from other parties including their main partners in government, Sinn Féin, to legalise gay marriage.