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Happening Today: U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Oral Arguments in Trio of Employment Discrimination Cases


This morning, the U.S. Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments in three employment discrimination cases in what many legal observers are calling some of the most highly anticipated cases this term.

For those unfamiliar, two cases (Bostock v. Clayton County Georgia and Altitude Express, Inc v. Zarda) ask the Court to address whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination “because of...sex,” also covers discrimination based upon sexual orientation.  As a bit of background, Gerald Bostock (“Bostock”) and Donald Zarda (“Zarda”) both sued their employers after they claimed they were terminated because they were gay.   The Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals eventually ruled against Bostock, finding that Title VII does not provide protections for discrimination based on sexual orientation.  In Zarda’s case, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals went the opposite direction and found that Title VII does in fact cover discrimination based upon sexual orientation as sexual orientation is a subset of sex discrimination.  With a split among Circuits on the matter, the Supreme Court is expected to resolve the split with a ruling on these cases.  For today’s oral arguments, these two cases will be combined.

The third case (R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) asks the Court to address whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits discrimination against transgender people based either on their status as being transgender or on sex stereotyping.  As a bit of background, Aimee Stephens (“Stephens”) began working at the funeral home in 2007 and dressed and appeared as a man.  In 2013, after Stephens informed her employer that she was going to live and work as a woman for a year then have gender reassignment surgery, she was subsequently terminated.  The owner of the funeral home later testified that Stephen’s decision to transition to being a woman violated “God’s commands.”  While a federal district court agreed with the employer’s argument that Title VII did not cover discrimination against transgender people, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals disagreed and ruled in favor of Stephens.

A ruling from the Court in favor of the employees in any of these cases would be somewhat of a landmark decision as it would extend the protections afforded by Title VII to a larger scope of workers.  It is worth noting that there have been more amicus briefs submitted to the Court in favor of extending the protections of Title VII rather than keeping things “status quo.”  While that does not necessarily give an indication of which way the Court might rule, it is interesting to see how many have come out in support of expanding the protections of Title VII.

At this point, I think a ruling from the Court on any of the three cases will be extremely tight.  A 5 - 4 decision, whether for or against extending the protections of Title VII, could be expected.


For additional information:  https://www.subscriptlaw.com/blog/sex-discrimination-in-employment

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