On 16 December 2009, the Supreme Court decided that JFS (formerly the Jews' Free School) had discriminated against a pupil (“M”) by refusing him admission because of his ethnic origins.

JFS had rejected M’s parents’ application for M to be admitted to the school because of his mother’s lack of Jewish ethnicity. The Jewish faith distinguishes itself from other religions in that it recognises its followers as being Jewish from both a religious and ethnic perspective.

The Decision

While deciding that the school had breached race discrimination laws, the Supreme Court took care to point out that its judgement did not imply that the school’s policy was overtly racist.

In explaining its decision, the court stated that, in addition to protecting individuals from overtly racist remarks and behaviour, the race discrimination legislation also protects a person from being treated less favourably because of their ethnic descent, as was the case here. Based on these observations, the court held that that the decision by JSF to deny M admission because his mother lacked Jewish descent was discriminatory on the grounds of ethnic origin.

The court also added that, even though the school’s admission policy was based on a sincere and strongly held religious belief, that alone did not justify the discriminatory effect of the admissions policy.

Implications of the Decision

Although the ruling implies that schools will now be prevented from discriminating against children on the grounds of their ethnic origin, any widespread impact of the judgment on other faith schools is likely to be very limited. This is due to the fact that in the Jewish faith, the link between faith and ethnicity is much closer than it is in other religions. As a result, this ruling by the Supreme Court is unlikely to have the wider effect of preventing faith schools from upholding their religious beliefs and will not put a stop to other faith-based schools being able to select pupils for admission based upon their religious beliefs.

Further information

For further information on the issues raised in this ezine, please contact Alun Thomas, Alan Glazer or your usual contact within the Employment Team.


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