Major U.S. companies and organizations, including tech giants, financial institutions and sports teams, are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to create uniform federal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender employees.
Seventy-six businesses on Tuesday filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the Supreme Court in the case Evans v. Georgia Regional Hospital. Companies on the brief included Viacom Inc., Uber Technologies, American Airlines, Starbucks Corporation, Deutsche Bank and The Est e Lauder Companies. Sports franchises included the Miami Heat and Tampa Bay Rays Baseball Ltd. Google Inc., Facebook Inc. and Airbnb Inc. also signed the brief.
The Supreme Court case, which gay rights advocates hope will settle questions about the scope of workplace protections for LGBT employees, confronts whether sexual orientation should be considered sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Circuit courts are split on this question and now two government agencies, the U.S. Justice Department under the Trump administration, and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, are also at odds.
A three-judge panel in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit declined to hear the Evans case en banc and Lambda Legal, which represents Jameka Evans, the challenger, filed a petition in September urging the justices to take up the case.
The coalition of businesses and organizations, organized by a team from Quinn, Emanuel, Urquhart & Sullivan, argued in their amicus brief that no employee should face discrimination for sexual orientation, which they argued is inherently sex-based. Quinn Emanuel partners Kathleen Sullivan and Todd Anten were among the lawyers who filed the brief.
These businesses and organizations are committed to giving everyone the opportunity to earn a living, excel in their profession, and provide for their family free from fear of unequal treatment, the amicus brief said. Creating workplaces in which employees are and feel safe from discrimination frees them to do their best work, with substantial benefits for their employers.
A similar amicus brief was filed in a case that was heard en banc before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, Zarda v. Altitude Express, where 50 companies pressed for sexual orientation protections in the workplace. Many of the companies in these briefs overlap, including Edelman, Levi Strauss and Ben & Jerry s.
In the Second Circuit case, dozens of groups filed in support of sexual orientation protections, including the EEOC, which has trumpeted the position that sex discrimination includes discrimination against orientation and gender identity. The Trump administration s Justice Department filed an opposing brief in the Zarda case that argued Congress would need to pass sexual orientation protection and alter Title VII in order for protections to be ensured. At oral argument, Justice Department lawyer Hashim Mooppan was needled about the disconnect between the two agencies.