Jun 16, 2020
U.S. Supreme Court: Employers can’t discriminate against gay, transgender employees
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled this morning that existing federal laws prohibit employers from job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, a resounding win for LGBTQ advocates from the conservative-leaning bench.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, a President Donald Trump appointee, wrote the opinion with Justices John Roberts, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan concurring. Justices Samuel Alito wrote a dissent, in which Justice Clarence Thomas joined, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote a separate dissent.
“Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender,” Gorsuch writes. “The answer is clear. 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.”