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A significant ruling in 2020 has established a new legal precedent for protecting the rights of transgender employees.
There has been only one significant ruling by the Supreme Court regarding transgender rights, which is the case of Bostock v. Clayton County.
The decision made in 2020 stated that a significant civil rights law shields gay and transgender employees from discrimination in the workplace.
Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, who was appointed to the court by President Donald J. Trump, stated in the majority opinion of a 6-3 ruling that it is against the law for an employer to fire someone simply for being gay or transgender. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., another conservative, and the court’s four-member liberal wing, also supported this decision.
The ruling included a majority opinion and two dissenting opinions that totaled 168 pages. President Donald J. Trump stated to the press that he agreed with the ruling, mentioning that he had read the decision and while some may have been surprised, it was a decision that they would respect. He described it as a strong decision.
The justices were tasked with interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a law that prohibits discrimination in employment based on race, religion, national origin, and sex. They had to determine if the prohibition against discrimination "because of sex" also extended to gay and transgender employees.
Justice Gorsuch stated that it was indeed the case
He wrote that when an employer fires someone for being homosexual or transgender, they are essentially firing them for characteristics or behaviors that would not have been questioned if they were a different gender.
Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. disagreed with the argument, stating that he found it incredibly arrogant. He also noted that there is no evidence to suggest that any member of Congress understood the law in that way when it was passed in 1964.
The law prohibited discrimination in the workplace based on sex. The case being discussed focuses on the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, which is written broadly and is used to create an analytical framework rather than strict rules. Justice Alito mentioned in 2020 that the court’s decision in this case could influence future constitutional cases.
Adam Liptak is a journalist who reports on the Supreme Court and writes a column called Sidebar about legal news. He studied at Yale Law School and worked as a lawyer for 14 years before starting his career at The New York Times in 2002.
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