SCOTUS rules 6-3 that fired LGBT workers can sue for bias

[TwinIon]

4 hours ago, mclumber1 said:

The majority opinion was judicial activism in my view.  Sexual orientation is not sex.  Congress either needs to amend the CRA or they need to pass new legislation that explicitly protects sexual orientation.

 

SCOTUS Blog did a good job outlining Gorsuch's argument for why sex essentially covers sexual orientation:

Quote

Gorsuch framed the question before the court as a straightforward one: “Today,” he wrote, “we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender.” The answer to that question, he continued, “is clear.” When an employer fires an employee “for being homosexual or transgender,” that employer “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.”

 

Gorsuch began by explaining that the Supreme Court generally interprets a law by looking at how the public would have understood the law when it was passed — “the ordinary public meaning” of the law. Here, he reasoned, the word “sex” means either male or female. Under the plain terms of Title VII, then, an employer violates Title VII “when it intentionally fires an individual employee based in part on sex,” even if “other factors besides the plaintiff’s sex contributed to the decision” and even if “the employer treated women as a group the same when compared to men as a group.” All that matters, Gorsuch stressed, is whether “changing the employee’s sex would have yielded a different choice by the employer.” As an example, Gorsuch offered the case of an employer with two employees who are both attracted to men and are, for all intents and purposes, identical, but one is male and one is female. If the employer fires the male employee only because he is attracted to men, while keeping the female employee, Gorsuch wrote, the employer has violated Title VII.

 

Gorsuch rejected the idea that because Congress did not address sexual orientation or transgender status specifically in Title VII, Title VII does not protect LGBT employees. Discrimination against LGBT employees, Gorsuch made clear, “necessarily entails discrimination based on sex; the first cannot happen without the second.” Moreover, Gorsuch added, there is no “such thing as a ‘canon of donut holes,’ in which Congress’s failure to speak directly to a specific case that falls within a more general statutory rule creates a tacit exception.” Rather, Gorsuch explained, if Congress establishes a broad rule without any exceptions, “courts apply the broad rule.”

 

I think the key part is that if swapping the person's sex would have changed the outcome, you've discriminated based on sex. I think that's a logical argument to make and it doesn't rely on changing the definition of sex or broadening the term to include orientation. I also think that the last part about the broadness of the rule is important.

[LazyPiranha]

2 hours ago, Firewithin said:

he totally doesnt understand what just happened.

Honestly?  I think Trump cares way less about gays and transgender issues than people might think.  He’s not progressive by any stretch, he’ll blindly sign whatever is put in front of him, but I don’t think he has any of that biblical fire and brimstone in him for this issue in particular.  Race shit gets his blood boiling way more than this.

[CastlevaniaNut18]

Just now, LazyPiranha said:

Honestly?  I think Trump cares way less about gays and transgender issues than people might think.  He’s not progressive by any stretch, he’ll blindly sign whatever is put in front of him, but I don’t think he has any of that biblical fire and brimstone in him for this issue in particular.  Race shit gets his blood boiling way more than this.

I think we all know this, but he does have a base to play to.

[Amazatron]

Here's a comprehensive list of things Donald Trump cares about:

Donald Trump

[LazyPiranha]

12 minutes ago, CastlevaniaNut18 said:

I think we all know this, but he does have a base to play to.

Sure but he’s too lazy to even pretend to be outraged.

[Ghost_MH]

21 minutes ago, Amazatron said:

Here's a comprehensive list of things Donald Trump cares about:

Donald Trump

 

This is why I'm curious to know his reaction if/when Fox News/OANN starts talking about how this ruling may affect the LGBT protections he just finished killing off.

[sexy_shapiro]

31 minutes ago, LazyPiranha said:

Honestly?  I think Trump cares way less about gays and transgender issues than people might think.  He’s not progressive by any stretch, he’ll blindly sign whatever is put in front of him, but I don’t think he has any of that biblical fire and brimstone in him for this issue in particular.  Race shit gets his blood boiling way more than this.

This is the danger of making the entire conversation around Trump. It doesn’t matter if he personally doesn’t hate gays, he clearly doesn’t have any issue surrounding himself with and pandering to those who want to see us dead. So doesn’t hate us, but has no issues hurting us for political gain. That’s a small comfort.

[b_m_b_m_b_m]

31 minutes ago, sexy_shapiro said:

This is the danger of making the entire conversation around Trump. It doesn’t matter if he personally doesn’t hate gays, he clearly doesn’t have any issue surrounding himself with and pandering to those who want to see us dead. So doesn’t hate us, but has no issues hurting us for political gain. That’s a small comfort.

Yeah. I mean, we should never forget his VP is Mike Dense

[SaysWho?]

 

That second screenshot.

[SaysWho?]

Just a reminder that the idea that "coastal elites" live in a bubble comes from people who police in bubbles.

 

 

[Massdriver]

I strongly agree with the majority’s logic and this is a solid decision. Intent doesn’t matter as much as what the law actually says, and there’s no logical way to separate sex from sexual identity or orientation in these circumstances.  This gives me more confidence that this court will not overturn same sex marriage. 

[osxmatt]

 

[heydude93]

This includes pan, ace, bi, etc?

[CastlevaniaNut18]

3 hours ago, heydude93 said:

This includes pan, ace, bi, etc?

Duh.

[MarSolo]

22 hours ago, LazyPiranha said:

Honestly?  I think Trump cares way less about gays and transgender issues than people might think.  He’s not progressive by any stretch, he’ll blindly sign whatever is put in front of him, but I don’t think he has any of that biblical fire and brimstone in him for this issue in particular.  Race shit gets his blood boiling way more than this.

Remember, during the Republican primaries he was the only one saying he didn’t care about the bathroom issue and that Caitlyn Jenner could use whatever bathroom she wanted in Trump Tower.

[Chairslinger]

On 6/15/2020 at 5:11 PM, Firewithin said:

he totally doesnt understand what just happened.

 

 

“Wow, we must be really flying high!  Those people down there look all tiny, blurry, just like the inside of a cataract.”

 

 

[SuperSpreader]

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/durrellrobinson_now-that-i-cant-get-fired-for-it-i-want-activity-6678497096963907584-5ULG