Polish Supreme Court Rules against Printer; Tribunal Reversed in 2019

Case information
Incident date
Country
Poland
Place
Warsaw
Categories
  • Government Restrictions
Attack Against
  • Faith
Perpetrator / Motive Indicators
  • Radical Left
Societal Sphere
  • Governmental
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Access to Justice or Services
  • Freedom of Conscience
  • Freedom of Expression
Place of Incident
  • Business

Poland's Supreme Court ruled against a printer who refused to create a roll-up banner for an LGBT business group because he did not want to "promote" the gay rights movement, citing his Catholic religious beliefs. The Court held that although there may be legally justifiable reasons to refuse services based on religious objections, in this case they did not apply. UPDATE: In June 2019, the Constitutional Tribunal ruled that the law the printer was convicted under was unconstitutional, because punishment for refusing to provide services on the grounds of beliefs interfered with the service providers’ rights to act according to their conscience.

Sources: Gazeta Prawna and Reuters

Sources