In Shortall v. Ireland, (ECHR, Nov. 18, 2021), the European Court of Human Rights dismissed as inadmissible a suit filed by several politicians in Ireland complaining that the Irish Constitution requires the President and members of the Council of State to take oaths containing religious language, without a secular alternative. The court concluded that none of the litigants were directly affected by the challenged provisions:
[N]one of the applicants have so far been invited to serve on the Council of State, and none claimed that such an appointment was under consideration....
[T]he applicants have not provided any evidence – or even sought to argue – that they could secure the nomination required to stand for election as President.... [T]he applicants ... are seeking to have their victim status accepted, not in the context of a clear, immediate and compelling factual matrix which would allow them to adduce reasonable and convincing evidence that they are at a real risk of being adversely affected by the impugned measure, but rather as a hypothetical outcome, without addressing the very many challenges they would potentially have to overcome to secure that office.
The Court also issued a press release summarizing the decision.
