In a landmark decision, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6 – 3 declaring it illegal for an employer to fire someone for their sexual orientation or gender identity. This is breaking news, more to come.
Update: 12:11 p.m.
The decision, written surprisingly by Trump appointee Justice Neil Gorsuch says: “An employer who fires 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. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”
“There is simply no escaping the role intent plays here: Just as sex is necessarily a but-for cause when an employer discriminates against homosexual or transgender employees, an employer who discriminates on these grounds inescapably intends to rely on sex in its decisionmaking,” the opinion continued.
The six justices in the majority were Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Bryer, Elena Kegan, Sonya Sotomayor, Neil Gorsuch, and Chief Justice John Roberts. The dissenting justices on the wrong side of history were Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas.
This is the first time that the Supreme Court has issued a decision on transgender issues.
The decision catches Federal law up to Pittsburgh law 23 years later.
In March 1997, Pittsburgh City Council voted 8 to 1 to amend the City Code definition of “sex” to include “presumed or assumed” there by protecting transgender individuals from discrimination in employment, housing, and public accommodations, reported Planet Q at the time.