Milestone decision on gay, transgender rights
Joseph Fons stands in front of the U.S. Supreme Court building after the court ruled that LGBTQ people cannot be disciplined or fired based on their sexual orientation on Monday in Washington, D.C. Credit: Getty Images / Chip Somodevilla
The Supreme Court ruling Monday that gay and transgender employees are protected under the 1964 Civil Rights Act's prohibition on discrimination finally affords many Americans basic rights that have been long denied. “It is impossible to discriminate against a person for being homosexual or transgender without discriminating against that individual based on sex,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the majority in one of the most consequential and controversial cases this term.
Gorsuch, the first appointee of President Donald Trump, and Chief Justice John Roberts, a conservative who has moved to the middle on high-profile cases, were joined by four liberals in the 6-3 ruling. When partisanship infects so much of public life, it's good that the court's rulings are not easily predicted by ideological splits. The dissenters mostly argued that an expansion of the 1964 law should be done by Congress.
The decision also was welcome for delivering a profound rebuke of the Trump administration's efforts to so narrow the definition of sex discrimination that it does not include protections for transgender people. It was just last Friday that the Trump administration took one more step in its systemic campaign to strip away rights from transgendered people, this time in the area of health care and during a pandemic. Three days later, the Supreme Court effectively mooted its efforts.
Given that the departments of Housing and Urban Development, Education and Defense are pursuing actions that would deny civil rights to transgender people in such venues as housing shelters, high school sports and military service, and that the Justice Department had released a memo stating that transgender people are not protected by federal civil rights law from workplace discrimination, the court's ruling was a most welcome way to stop continued acts of bias.
The written opinion by Gorsuch noted that while Congress did not debate gay and transgender rights more than five decades ago, the meaning of the law was clear: no discrimination based on sex. It was the most important gay rights ruling since the Supreme Court upheld a constitutional right for same-sex couples to marry five years ago.
Now as then, it seems ludicrous that these rights could be in doubt. Now as then, the court was merely catching up to public opinion. In recent polling, 92% of Americans said that employers should not be able to fire employees because of their sexual identity or sexual orientation, and 82% said gays, lesbians and bisexuals should be protected by civil rights laws. Hewing to prevailing public opinion helps the court maintain its legitimacy, an important point to remember with a decision due soon on a Louisiana law that restricts access to abortion. This latest challenge to Roe v. Wade comes as about two-thirds of Americans oppose overturning the landmark decision.
In a nation bound by the ideal of equality for all, the Supreme Court on Monday reminded us all that expanding those rights is better than limiting them. — The editorial board
