The US Supreme Court has ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which prohibits employment discrimination based on sex, includes a prohibition of discrimination against gay and transgender citizens.
The 6-3 ruling was written by Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was appointed to the court by President Donald Trump. “Today, we must decide whether an employer can fire someone simply for being homosexual or trans- gender,” Justice Gorsuch wrote. “The answer is clear. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids.”
Justice Gorsuch was joined in his opinion by Chief Justice John Roberts and the court’s four liberal justices. Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Trump’s other appointee, filed a dissent arguing it was up to the legislature, not the courts, to extend the Title VII protections, though he agreed with the result.
Archbishop José Gómez, president of the US bishops’ conference, denounced the decision, stating: “By erasing the beautiful differences and complementary relationship between man and woman, we ignore the glory of God’s creation and harm the human family, the first building block of society.”
The court also annulled the Trump administration’s decision to end the programme known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca). The programme allows immigrants who were brought to the US as children, but without proper documentation, to receive renewable two-year deferments of any deportation proceedings while they regularise their legal status.
The court, in a 5-4 decision with Chief Justice Roberts again joining the court’s liberal justices, held that the Trump administration’s actions to end the programme were “arbitrary and capricious”, failing to articulate a reasonable basis for its decision.
In this case the US bishops praised the court’s decision.
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