The Supreme Court issued a group of highly-watched opinions on Monday morning, including a group of controversial cases related to employee protections under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The suits each alleged workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identification. With Justice Gorsuch authoring the majority opinion, the court ruled in a 6-3 vote that firing employees based on being gay or transgender violated Title VII:
“Title VII makes it “unlawful . . .for an employer to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual…because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
The ruling also covers transgender employees. Huge win for LGBT rights.
— Greg Stohr (@GregStohr) June 15, 2020
SCOTUS: "Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or transgender. The answer is clear... Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids."
— Ryan Struyk (@ryanstruyk) June 15, 2020
#SCOTUS rules that federal employment discrimination laws protect LGBT employees
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 15, 2020
The court declined to hear multiple cases, including a request from the Trump Administration to overturn California’s “sanctuary city” law. The high court also declined to rule on a group of cases related to qualified immunity for law enforcement officers, which shields police officers from personal liability, as well as a group of cases related to the Second Amendment.
#SCOTUS will not take up federal govt’s request to overturn California’s “sanctuary state” law, which bars state & local law enforcement from cooperating with federal immigration authorities
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 15, 2020
#SCOTUS also turns down group of cases involving doctrine of qualified immunity, which shields officials from liability for constitutional violations that do not violate clearly established law
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 15, 2020
#SCOTUS declines to hear a group of Second Amendment cases that the justices had considered at several conferences
— SCOTUSblog (@SCOTUSblog) June 15, 2020
Other decisions related to Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and abortion are still outstanding.