DOJ: Businesses Can Discriminate Against Transgender Workers

[DonViejo]

Posted Oct. 24, 2018, 4:02 PM Updated Oct. 24, 2018, 4:41 PM

DOJ lawyers: Transgender bias isn’t sex discrimination

Court asked to take up LGBT bias question in 3 cases

The Justice Department today told the U.S. Supreme Court that businesses can discriminate against workers based on their gender identity without violating federal law.

Solicitor General Noel Francisco told the high court that a civil rights law banning sex discrimination on the job doesn’t cover transgender bias. That approach already has created a rift within the Trump administration, contradicting the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s view of the law it’s tasked with enforcing.

A Michigan funeral home wants the high court to overturn a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decision finding that the company violated federal workplace discrimination law when it fired Aimee Stephens, a transgender worker. The EEOC successfully sued on behalf of Stephens in that case, but the Justice Department has the sole authority to represent the government before the Supreme Court. The DOJ told the high court that the Sixth Circuit got the case wrong.

“The court of appeals misread the statute and this Court’s decisions in concluding that Title VII encompasses discrimination on the basis of gender identity,” Francisco said in a brief filed with the court.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide in the coming months whether to take up the case. It’s also been asked to consider two other cases testing whether sexual orientation bias is a form of sex discrimination banned under the existing law.

more
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/justice-department-says-transgender-discrimination-is-lawful

[Faux pas]

1. Kickin' with disgust

[ck4829]

2. I'm not going to support any firm that discriminates against the GLBTQ community