Bostock v. Clayton County

Bostock v. Clayton County
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued October 8, 2019
Decided June 15, 2020
Full case nameGerald Lynn Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia
Docket no.17-1618
Citations590 U.S. 644 (more)
140 S. Ct. 1731; 207 L. Ed. 2d 218; 2020 WL 3146686; 2020 U.S. LEXIS 3252
ArgumentOral argument
Case history
Prior
  • Bostock v. Clayton Cnty., No. 1:16-cv-001460, 2016 WL 9753356 (N.D. Ga. November 3, 2016); report and recommendation adopted, 2017 WL 4456898 (N.D. Ga. July 21, 2017); affirmed sub nom. Bostock v. Clayton Cnty. Bd. of Commissioners, 723 F. App'x 964 (11th Cir. 2018); cert. granted, 139 S.Ct. 1599 (2019).
  • Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc., No. 2:10-cv-04334 (E.D.N.Y. March 28, 2014); affirmed, 855 F.3d 76 (2d Cir. 2017); reversed on rehearing en banc, 883 F.3d 100 (2d Cir. 2018); cert. granted, 139 S.Ct. 1599 (2019).
  • Equal Employment Opportunity Comm'n v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc., 100 F. Supp. 3d 594 (E.D. Mich. 2015); summary judgment granted, 201 F. Supp. 3d 837 (E.D. Mich. 2016); reversed, 884 F.3d 560 (6th Cir. 2018); cert. granted, 139 S.Ct. 1599 (2019).
Holding
An employer who fires an individual based on their sexual orientation or gender identity violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit reversed.
Court membership
Chief Justice
John Roberts
Associate Justices
Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg
Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito
Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Neil Gorsuch · Brett Kavanaugh
Case opinions
MajorityGorsuch, joined by Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan
DissentAlito, joined by Thomas
DissentKavanaugh
Laws applied
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020), is a landmark[1] United States Supreme Court civil rights decision in which the Court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects employees against discrimination because of sexuality or gender identity.

The plaintiff, Gerald Bostock, was fired from his county job after he expressed interest in a gay softball league at work. The lower courts followed the Eleventh Circuit's past precedent that Title VII did not cover employment discrimination based on sexual orientation. The case was consolidated with Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda, a similar case of apparent discrimination due to sexual orientation from the Second Circuit, but which had added to a circuit split. Oral arguments were heard on October 8, 2019, alongside R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, a similar question of Title VII discrimination relating to transgender persons.

On June 15, 2020, the Court ruled in a 6–3 decision covering all three cases that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity is necessarily also discrimination "because of sex" as prohibited by Title VII. According to Justice Neil Gorsuch's majority opinion, that is so because employers discriminating against gay or transgender employees accept a certain conduct (e.g., attraction to women) in employees of one sex but not in employees of the other sex.

The ruling has been hailed as one of the most important legal decisions regarding LGBT rights in the United States, along with Lawrence v. Texas (2003) and Obergefell v. Hodges (2015).[2] Many legal analysts claimed that the case defined Gorsuch as a textualist in statutory interpretation.[3]

  1. ^ Wolf, Richard (June 15, 2020). "Supreme Court grants federal job protections to gay, lesbian, transgender workers". USA Today. Archived from the original on October 7, 2020. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  2. ^ Barbaro, Michael (June 16, 2020). "A Landmark Supreme Court Ruling". The New York Times. Retrieved June 16, 2020.
  3. ^ Blackman, Josh (June 24, 2020). "Justice Gorsuch's Legal Philosophy Has a Precedent Problem". The Atlantic.