More than 200 companies tell Supreme Court to apply job discrimination laws to sexual orientation, gender identity
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Chief Justice John Roberts is doing all in his power to help the Supreme Court not look overtly political as it moves ideologically to the right.
USA TODAY
WASHINGTON – More than 200 companies urged the Supreme Court on Tuesday to apply the nation’s job discrimination laws to sexual orientation and gender identity.
In three major civil rights cases the justices will hear when they return to the bench in October, the companies – which together employ more than 7 million workers and have more than $5 trillion in revenue – said “the U.S. economy benefits from a diverse workforce.”
The cases from New York, Michigan and Georgia involve workers who claim they were fired because they were gay or transgender:
- A New York skydiving instructor, Donald Zarda, said he was fired because he was gay. He has died, but his sister and life partner continue to press the case.
- A Georgia county government employee, Gerald Bostock, alleged he was fired from his job as a child welfare services coordinator because he is gay. Â
- A Michigan transgender woman, Aimee Stephens, said she was fired from the funeral home where she worked for six years as Anthony Stephens because of her transition.
A decision in the challengers’ favor would mark an important step in the effort to protect the LGBT community from discrimination in employment, housing and public accommodations, advocates said.
“Laws forbidding sexual orientation or gender identity discrimination are not unreasonably costly or burdensome for business,” the companies argued in legal papers submitted to the high court. “Only a uniform federal rule can enable businesses to recruit and retain, and employees to perform, at their highest levels.”
Among the companies signing on: Amazon, Apple, Cisco, eBay, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Nike, Starbucks, Uber, Univision and two baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and Tampa Bay Rays.
Other signers include ATT, General Motors, Southwest Airlines, MGM Resorts, CVS, JPMorgan Chase, Prudential, Wells Fargo, Xerox, Goldman Sachs, Levi Strauss, Northrup Grumman, American Airlines, Walt Disney, Marriott, Hilton, Domino’s and IBM.
Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act bars discrimination based on sex, race, color, national origin and religion. It does not specifically address sexual orientation or gender identity.
Federal appeals courts are divided over the question of sexual orientation, and the Supreme Court agreed to hear two cases that came to opposite conclusions. The transgender woman in the Michigan case won in the lower court.
The LGBTQ rights movement had hoped to get the issue to the high court before Associate Justice Anthony Kennedy, the author of several landmark gay rights decisions, retired last summer. The cases will be heard in October before a court with five solid conservative justices and four liberals.
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Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, right, walks with deputy independent council, John Bates, left, and associate independent council, Brett Kavanaugh on Monday, June 23, 1997, in Little Rock, Ark. In a victory for Whitewater prosectors, the Supreme Court, Monday, rejected White House efforts to withhold notes that lawyers took of their conversations with Hillary Rodham Clinton.
![The formal 2018 portrait of the Supreme Court of the United States. Seated from left: Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice of the United States John G. Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr. Standing behind from left: Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.]()
1 of 38![Chief Justice John Roberts shakes hands with President Donald Trump before the president's first address to a joint session of Congress in February 2017.]()
2 of 38![Chief Justice John Roberts addresses his daughter's high school graduating class in 2018.]()
3 of 38![Chief Justice John Roberts speaks at the University of Nebraska in Lincoln, Neb., in 2014.]()
4 of 38![New Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts walks down the steps of the court with Associate Justice John Paul Stevens after Roberts' investiture ceremony in 2005.]()
5 of 38![Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas testifies before the Senate Judiciary Committee during his 1991 confirmation hearing.]()
6 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Virginia Thomas arrive for the funeral of fellow Associate Justice Antonin Scalia at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in 2016.]()
7 of 38![President George H.W. Bush shakes hands with Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas after a news conference at the Bush compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, in 1991.]()
8 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Clarence Thomas speaks with a member of the clergy as they leave St. Matthew's Cathedral after the Red Mass in Washington in October 2016.]()
9 of 38![Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas administers the oath of office to Vice President Mike Pence during the 2017 Presidential Inauguration at the U.S. Capitol on Jan 20, 2017.]()
10 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg acknowledges applause as she arrives to speak to Georgetown University law students in Washington, D.C., in 2017.]()
11 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Antonin Scalia pose with members of the cast of Ariadne auf Naxos following a performance at the Washington National Opera in 1994.]()
12 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg with documentary filmmakers Betsy West and Julie Cohen at the RBG premiere during the 2018 Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.]()
13 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg prepares to administer the Oath of Allegiance to candidates for U.S. citizenship at the New York Historical Society on April 10, 2018 in New York City.]()
14 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer speaks at the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C., in 2016.]()
15 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer descends a stairway at the French Cultural Center in Boston followed by center members Mary Ann Sorel and her husband Pierre Sorel in 2017.]()
16 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer participates in a panel at the Gewirz Student Center on the campus of Georgetown University Law Center in 2014.]()
17 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Stephen Breyer attends a Hanukkah reception hosted by President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House in 2017.]()
18 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito administers the oath of office to Hamilton Township, N.J., Mayor Kelly Yaede in 2016.]()
19 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito gestures while speaking to the graduating class at Georgetown University Law Center in 2016.]()
20 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Alito enjoys a laugh after accidentally breaking a glass before testifying to a House appropriations subcommittee in March 2019.]()
21 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor gives the commencement address to graduates at the University of Rhode Island in 2016.]()
22 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, a diehard Yankees fan, talks with other fans in the Judge's Chambers before a game against the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium in 2017.]()
23 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor gestures while speaking with actress Eva Longoria Baston to discuss Sotomayor's life story and promote her new book during an event at George Washington University in March 2019.]()
24 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor appears with actress Eva Longoria Baston to discuss Sotomayor's life story and promote her new book during an event at George Washington University in March 2019.]()
25 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan smiles as she testifies before a House appropriations subcommittee in March 2019.]()
26 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan leaves the White House Rose Garder after attending new Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch's ceremonial swearing-in ceremony in 2017.]()
27 of 38![Supreme Court Associate Justice Elena Kagan speaks at the University of Mississippi School of Law in 2014.]()
28 of 38![Swearing in of Coloradan Neil M. Gorsuch as the newest member of the, United States Court Of Appeals For The Tenth Circuit, with his wife Louise Gorsuch, holding the bible, and his two daughters, Belinda Gorsuch age 4, and Emma Gorsuch age 6 on Nov. 20, 2006 in Denver.]()
29 of 38![The late Justice Antonin Scalia and Judge Neil M. Gorsuch, who is in line to be his successor, on the Colorado River during a fishing trip.]()
30 of 38![Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch fist-bumps four-year-old Charles Marshall of Dover, Delaware, in a Senate office building hallway as he makes the rounds meeting senators during his 2017 confirmation process.]()
31 of 38![Supreme Court Justice nominee Neil M. Gorsuch, left, shares a laugh with Senate Judiciary Committee member Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb.as he arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, for his confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee on March 21, 2017. Former New Hampshire Sen.]()
32 of 38![Prior to the investiture ceremony, Justice Neil M. Gorsuch and his wife, Louise Gorsuch, stand outside the Supreme Court building in Washington, D.C. on June 15, 2017.]()
33 of 38![Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr, right, walks with deputy independent council, John Bates, left, and associate independent council, Brett Kavanaugh on Monday, June 23, 1997, in Little Rock, Ark. In a victory for Whitewater prosectors, the Supreme Court, Monday, rejected White House efforts to withhold notes that lawyers took of their conversations with Hillary Rodham Clinton.]()
34 of 38![Brett Kavanaugh shakes hands with President George W. Bush after he was sworn in by Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy to be a judge to the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia as his wife Ashley looks on during a swearing-in ceremony at the Rose Garden of the White House June 1, 2006 in Washington, DC. Kavanaugh was confirmed by the Senate with a vote of 57 to 36.]()
35 of 38![Brett Kavanaugh, President Donald J. Trump's nominee to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy, and Vice President Mike Pence walk up the steps of the Capitol to meet with Senators in Washington, DC, on July 10, 2018.]()
36 of 38![Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh appears before the Senate Judiciary Committee in September 2018 during his contentious confirmation hearing.]()
37 of 38![Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., administers the Constitutional Oath to Judge Brett M. Kavanaugh in the Justices Conference Room in the Supreme Court Building. Mrs. Ashley Kavanaugh holds the Bible on Oct 6, 2018 in Washington.]()
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