U.S. Supreme Court Rules that Federal Employment Discrimination Laws Included LGBTQ Employees

The U.S. Supreme Court shocked the nation earlier today by issuing in favor of LGBTQ employment rights. In a 6-3 court decision, the majority justices ruled that LGBTQ employees are protected from employment discrimination despite their sexual orientation and gender identity. SCOTUS agreed the Title VII protects LGBTQ employees from being fired merely for being gay or transgender.

Plaintiff attorney Pamela Karlan reflected happily this morning and asserted that it was a given that SCOTUS would rule the way that it did:

“Title VII says you can’t fire a worker because of that worker’s sex,” she explained. “If you have two workers named Bobby, one of whom is male and one is female, and you fire the male worker named Bobby because he marries somebody named Pete but you don’t fire the female worker for marrying somebody named Pete, that’s sex discrimination, pure and simple.”

Justices John Roberts, Neil Gorsuch, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elana Kagan ruled for the majority.

Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Brett Kavanaugh ruled against these protections, arguing that the concepts of sexual orientation and gender identity would have been unknown concepts when the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964.