Federal Law Protects LGBT Workers From Discrimination, Supreme Court Says

TOPLINE

The Supreme Court issued a decision Monday that says existing federal law protects gay, lesbian and transgender workers from discrimination, in a major victory for advocates of LGBT rights.

KEY FACTS

Crucial quote

“Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear,” Gorsuch wrote in the opinion. “An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”

Surprising fact

The Supreme Court’s decision comes two days after the Trump administration, through the Department of Health and Human Services, finalized a rule that would remove healthcare and health insurance protections for LGBT people. The HHS rule reverses an Obama-era position that a provision of the Affordable Care Act prohibits discrimination based on gender identity, based on the interpretation of the word “sex.”

Key background

Monday’s Supreme Court decision was the first made on LGBT rights since the retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who wrote the opinions advancing those rights—including the 2015 decision affirming the constitutional right of LGBT people to marry. The Trump administration’s stance was counter to the Obama administration, which had taken the position that Title VII protected LGBT workers. Furthermore, the Trump administration’s stance also ran counter to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s 2015 decision that LGBT workers were federally protected. There were concerns leading up to Monday’s decision that the Court, which has become more conservative through the appointments of Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, would decide that Title VII did not apply to LGBT workers.

Further reading

Supreme Court Opinion For BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA (Supreme Court of the United States)

The LGBTQ-Rights Movement Is Changing, and So Is the Supreme Court (The Atlantic)

Civil Rights Law Protects Gay and Transgender Workers, Supreme Court Rules (New York Times)

Supreme Court says gay, transgender workers are protected by federal law forbidding discrimination on the basis of sex (Washington Post)