Supreme Court extends employment protections to LGBT individuals – Roll Call

The Supreme Court on Monday extended broad workplace protections to gay, lesbian and transgender employees, in a decision that found a 55-year-old anti-discrimination law covers them even if Congress did not intend that when it passed the law.

The 6-3 decision, written by conservative Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, pointed out that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 adopted broad language that prohibits private companies from discriminating against employees on the basis of “sex,” seen at the time as a historic step for women’s rights.

But sex “plays a necessary and undisguisable role” when employers fire someone for being homosexual or transgender, Gorsuch wrote, even if that wasn’t why lawmakers included “sex” in the law at the time.

“We do not hesitate to recognize today a necessary consequence of that legislative choice: An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender defies the law,” Gorsuch wrote.

The decision essentially settles an ongoing legislative fight in Congress. Democratic lawmakers, who this year advanced legislation to ensure LGBT workplace protections under Title VII no matter how the court rules, had argued in a brief that “sex” already covers LGBT workers. Republican lawmakers filed a brief in the case to argue that it doesn’t.