Minority rights and minorities wronged

AL CAPONE WOULD have recognised the tactic. When Hungary introduced a law that banned the “promotion” or positive portrayal of homosexual relationships or transgender people in schools, lawyers at the European Commission got to work. Brussels has little competence over a country’s education policy. No matter. Just as the Chicago gangster went down for tax evasion rather than racketeering or murder, Viktor Orban’s government found itself on 15th July accused of violating the Audiovisual Media Services Directive on being able to broadcast across borders, among other laws. Imagine “The Untouchables” with fewer machineguns and a lot more paperwork.

On the same day, 140 miles from Brussels, a different story was playing out. In Luxembourg, the European Court of Justice ruled that European companies were within their rights to sack Muslim women for refusing to take off a headscarf. Such a decision did not violate the EU’s rules on discrimination at work so long as the rule banned all religious items of clothing and was necessary to stop “social conflict” or to avoid displeasing customers.

In general, EU law is supposed to provide a floor. National governments are free to offer higher protection—more maternity leave, say—than the European minimum. When it comes to the bloc’s rules on discrimination at work, EU judges have dug...