In landmark case, Supreme Court rules LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination

[babylonsister]

In landmark case, Supreme Court rules LGBTQ workers are protected from job discrimination
The decision said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person's sex, also covers sexual orientation and transgender status.
Supreme Court rules existing federal law forbids discrimination based on sexual orientation
June 15, 2020, 10:05 AM EDT / Updated June 15, 2020, 11:15 AM EDT
By Pete Williams


The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that existing federal law forbids job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or transgender status, a major victory for advocates of gay rights and for the nascent transgender rights movement — and a surprising one from an increasingly conservative court.

By a vote of 6-3, the court said Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to discriminate because of a person's sex, among other factors, also covers sexual orientation and transgender status. It upheld rulings from lower courts that said sexual orientation discrimination was a form of sex discrimination.

Equally surprising was that the decision was written by President Donald Trump's first Supreme Court appointee, Neil Gorsuch, who was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court's four more liberal members to form a majority.

"An employer who fired 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," Gorsuch wrote for the court. "Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."

"Those who adopted the Civil Rights Act might not have anticipated their work would lead to this particular result," he wrote, adding, "But the limits of the drafters' imagination supply no reason to ignore the law's demands."

"Only the written word is the law, and all persons are entitled to its benefit," he wrote.

more...

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/supreme-court/supreme-court-rules-existing-civil-rights-law-protects-gay-lesbian-n1231018

[unblock]

1. !!!

i did not expect this!!!

[SoonerPride]

2. I am gobsmacked over this.

I can't believe it!

[50 Shades Of Blue]

3. Thrilled!

[greatauntoftriplets]

4. Spanky's not going to like this.

But I'm very happy and relieved.

[Budi]

5. "Only the written word is the law, and all persons are entitled to its benefit," he wrote.

Wow!

This is rather shocking, but we'll take it!

[Ms. Toad]

6. Absolutely stunned.

I've predicted pretty much every other landmark LGBT case correctly. I was predicting we'd lose these 5-4. Very happy to be wrong.