Source: The Week: Most Recent Home Page Posts
Article note: Good. Oddly, that wasn't as closely decided as everyone had reason to fear it would be.
And it provides a handy tool to separate the textualists from the shameless bigots.
The Supreme Court has just issued a huge decision on LGBTQ rights.
The court on Monday ruled in a 6-3 decision that it's illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to discriminate against workers for being gay or transgender. "In Title VII, Congress adopted broad language making it illegal for an employer to rely on an employee's sex when deciding to fire that employee," Jusice Neil Gorsuch wrote in the majority opinion. "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."
Justice Gorsuch also wrote that when it comes to the question of "whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender," the "answer is clear." Chief Justice John Roberts joined Gorsuch in the decision, while Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas dissented. The Trump administration had argued the existing law protecting workers from being fired because of their sex "does not include sexual orientation."
NBC News' Pete Williams observed the decision was "a stunner, frankly, coming from this conservative Supreme Court."
