For years, courts around the country have been split about whether or not LGBT people are protected from workplace discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Amendment.
The Supreme Court announced on Monday that they will hear three cases about discrimination against people who say they were fired due to their sexual orientation and gender identity.
Of the three cases set to go before the court, two involve people who claim they were fired once their employer found out they were gay (Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda) and one involves a woman who claims she was fired for being transgender (R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC).
Different factions within the government are also divided on the matter: the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission says that LGBT people are protected under Title VII while the Trump administration believe that extending such protections would be an inaccurate interpretation of the law.
It’s unclear how the court might rule, as the sitting justices differ from those who legalized same-sex marriage in 2015, with the addition of Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in the time since.
As SCOTUS takes up the question, we dive into the legal arguments on both sides.
Guests:
Sarah Warbelow, legal director at the Human Rights Campaign, an LGBTQ civil rights advocacy organization based in D.C.
John Eidsmoe, senior counsel for the Foundation for Moral Law, a Christian nonprofit legal foundation that supports a strict interpretation of the constitution and “traditional” marriage, based in Montgomery, Alabama