The Justice Department told the Supreme Court on Wednesday that discriminating against transgender workers on the basis of their gender identity was lawful.
The DOJ wrote in a brief to the Supreme Court that the federal civil rights law banning sex discrimination in the workplace does not extend to transgender people. The filing follows a case in a lower court which ruled that the 1964 Civil Rights Act can also be interpreted as protecting the rights of transgender employees. The Supreme Court is currently considering taking on the case.
The move was met with criticism by some, who say that the Trump administration “is not a friend of the LGBT community.”
“They can say what they’re going to say, but the courts will have the final word,” Greg Nevins, an attorney for Lambda Legal, said according to The Hill.
Back in March, a funeral director was fired after coming out as transgender, which the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled was in violation of Title VII anti-discrimination laws. The presiding judge wrote at the time that “discrimination on the basis of transgender and transitioning status is necessarily discrimination on the basis of sex.”
Now, the Justice Department maintains in its filing that “the ordinary meaning of ‘sex’ does not refer to gender identity.”
In August, sixteen states weighed on the 6th Circuit’s case, saying the Supreme Court was misinterpreting the word “sex” in the Civil Rights Act.
“The Sixth Circuit’s opinion … erases all common, ordinary understandings of the term ‘sex’ in Title VII and expands it to include ‘gender identity’ and ‘transgender’ status,” the brief states. “In doing so, the lower court rewrites Title VII in a way never intended or implemented by Congress in the Civil Rights Act of 1964.”
The DOJ brief comes only days after it was reported that the Trump administration is considering changing the definition of “gender,” thus stripping transgender people of their protections.
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