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New York, NY, July 3, 2019 … ADL (the Anti-Defamation League) today joined a broad coalition of 59 civil rights organizations in urging the U.S. Supreme Court to clarify that a key provision of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 (CRA), Title VII protects LGBTQ individuals from discrimination in the workplace. The amicus brief, led by the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under the Law, highlights that LGBTQ employees of color are among those in greatest need of the law’s protection.
“We are pleased to join a broad coalition supporting protections for LGBTQ individuals,” said Jonathan Greenblatt, ADL CEO and National Director. “Invalidating these protections would make it harder to root out workplace discrimination for all.”
The brief argues that maintaining Title VII protections for LGBTQ individuals, established by prior U.S. Supreme Court and lower federal court decisions, is consistent with its legislative history, intent and text. In the combined cases of Bostock v. Clayton County, Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC, and Altitude Express v. Zarda, the Court has an opportunity to clarify Title VII’s protection of the LGBTQ community. Adopting a restrictive interpretation of sex discrimination under Title VII would deviate from decades of settled doctrine, eliminating protections for the LGBTQ community and opening the door for backsliding on Title VII protection as applied to other forms of discrimination, including racial prejudice, which depend on the same legal rules that the LGBTQ employees rely on in these cases.
In calling on the Court to uphold these important anti-discrimination protections, ADL continues its long tradition of support for the LGBTQ community.