Britain Is Bringing Back the Blasphemy Laws

I should explain, for American readers, what a judicial review is in the UK. It is not quite the same as suing the government, though it has a similar effect. It is a procedure by which the courts in England and Wales can examine whether a public body—a minister, a local authority, a regulator—has acted unlawfully. If the judges agree that it has, they can quash the decision. Think of it as the British equivalent of challenging an executive action in the federal courts, except that our system doesn’t require you to invoke the Constitution. You simply have to show that someone in the government has gone beyond his legal authority, or exercised it irrationally. Which is precisely what the Free Speech Union believes Steve Reed, the secretary of state for communities, has done.