The UK Supreme Court this week rejected an appeal against a court ruling that sided with a Christian teacher.
The case centred on Kristie Higgs, a Christian school employee dismissed in 2018 for social media posts expressing concerns about sex education and transgender ideology in her child’s primary school.
The Supreme Court’s decision upholds a landmark February 2025 ruling by the Court of Appeal, which found that Higgs’ dismissal constituted illegal discrimination based on her religious beliefs.
The February judgment was seen as a turning point in employment law, affirming the appropriate of people to specific faith-based views outside of labor without facing skilled consequences.
Higgs, who had worked at the varsity as a pastoral administrator for seven years without prior grievance, made two posts on her personal Facebook account in 2018 under her maiden name.
The posts questioned the introduction of the federal government’s Relationships and Sex Education (RSE) curriculum and using transgender-themed books – ‘My princess boy’ and ‘Red: A Crayon’s Story’ – in her son’s Church of England primary school. They also rallied family and friends to hitch in signing a petition contesting it.
An anonymous grievance prompted disciplinary motion by the varsity, ultimately resulting in her dismissal for alleged gross misconduct.
The Court of Appeal concluded that the varsity’s actions were a disproportionate response.
It ruled that employers must provide clear, legal justification for dismissals based on expressions of belief, quite than act on potential reputational risks or assumptions of offence.
The posts, the court noted, weren’t directed at the varsity, were shared privately, and didn’t lead to any known harm to pupils or staff.
The Supreme Court this week rejected an appeal made by Farmor’s School in Gloucestershire against February’s ruling, bringing an end to a years-long legal fight over freedom of faith and expression within the workplace.
Reacting to the final result, Mrs Higgs said she was “relieved and grateful to the Supreme Court for this commonsense decision”.“Christians have the appropriate to specific their beliefs on social media and at other non-work-related settings without fear of being punished by their employer,” she said. “Expressing biblical truth is just not discriminatory. It is an expression of affection and of sunshine.
“Today’s judgment is as necessary without spending a dime speech because it is for freedom of faith.
“Employers will now not have the opportunity to depend on their theoretical fears of reputational damage or subjective concerns about causing offence to discipline employees for exercising their fundamental freedom to specific their deeply held beliefs.
“The Court of Appeal has now set a transparent standard to guard people like me, and the countless other Christians on this nation, to specific their beliefs without fear of losing their jobs.”
Her legal support got here from the Christian Legal Centre, whose chief executive, Andrea Williams, called the judgment a “critical precedent” that can “protect the rights to specific Christian beliefs without fear of reprisal.”
“The Court of Appeal confirmed, loud and clear, that ideological censorship within the workplace, particularly against sincerely held Christian convictions, is illegitimate,” she said. “This latest decision from the Supreme Court is further proof that our tireless work on the Christian Legal Centre, in defending so many Christian freedoms cases, has not been in vain.”
Legal analysts view the ruling as a major development within the interpretation of the Equality Act 2010, especially concerning religious belief in skilled contexts.
The Court of Appeal’s stance, now left unchallenged by the Supreme Court, places greater scrutiny on employers’ obligations when navigating expressions of belief by their staff.
The case also arrives amid a broader national conversation on the appropriateness of sex education content in schools.
In 2023, the then serving Prime Minister, Rishi Sunak, commissioned a review into “the intense and sexualised” classroom materials, and updated government guidance to call for respect toward religious beliefs at school settings.
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