Articles Posted in Sexual Orientation

A few weeks ago, a Pennsylvania federal judge reluctantly ruled in this case that discrimination based on sexual orientation is not unlawful (or you, could say, permissible) under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Continue reading

Yesterday, Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh delivered the opinion for a unanimous Supreme Court in a case called Henry Schein, Inc. v. Archer & White Sales, Inc.  Although the Court’s decision has nothing to do with employment law — it’s a case about antitrust issues and arbitration — there’s a little something from Justice Kavanaugh’s that may be more than a little something.

At least as it relates to a big employment case that could be coming down Supreme Court Boulevard in 2019. Continue reading

By the time you read this, I should be blissfully cruising in the Atlantic outside the range of any cell towers. However, between now (Saturday afternoon) and Monday, I am feverishly punching out 5 blog posts to hold you over until after Labor Day.

Will I sacrifice quality for quantity? Since you’re not paying me anything to blog, you bet I will. Hopefully, you won’t see it that way. But, if feel otherwise, go jump in a lake I’m sorry. Continue reading

Usually, after my kids go to bed is when I write my blog posts for the following day. Last night that didn’t happen. Instead, while putting my two boys to bed, I fell asleep on the spare bed in their room. #Parenting

So, I apologize for the tardy post today. Continue reading

Yesterday’s blog post highlighted the blistering dissent of Eleventh Circuit judge Hon. Robin S. Rosenbaum, as she criticized her colleagues for passing on the opportunity to reconsider whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected employees from discrimination based on sexual orientation. In Judge Rosenbaum’s opinion, Title VII does afford those protections based on the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. In that case, the Court concluded that sex stereotyping violates Title VII.  (It follows that Title VII precludes discrimination based on sexual orientation because of the failure to conform to the gender-based stereotype of loving someone of the opposite sex. Continue reading

Here’s a little taste of Hon. Robin S. Rosenbaum giving her colleagues from the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals a piece of her mind:

The issue this case raises—whether Title VII protects gay and lesbian individuals from discrimination because their sexual preferences do not conform to their employers’ views of whom individuals of their respective genders should love—is indisputably en-banc-worthy…. I cannot explain why a majority of our Court is content to rely on the precedential equivalent of an Edsel with a missing engine, when it comes to an issue that affects so many people.

Continue reading

It took the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission about 50 years to recognize that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protected employees from discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

Now, in less than three years since the agency’s groundbreaking decision in 2015, two federal appellate courts have joined in concluding that sex discrimination under Title VII includes discrimination based on sexual orientation, as yesterday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Zarda v. Altitude Express, Inc. issued its long-awaited decision. Continue reading