Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook says he’s “grateful” for the Supreme Court’s 6-3 decision that protects LGBTQ workers from job discrimination.
Grateful for today’s decision by the Supreme Court. LGBTQ people deserve equal treatment in the workplace and throughout society, and today’s decision further underlines that federal law protects their right to fairness.
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) June 15, 2020
[The] U.S. Supreme Court ruled that federal law protects gay and transgender workers from job discrimination in a decision that gives millions of LGBT people new civil rights.
Conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch and Chief Justice John Roberts joined the court’s four liberals in a 6-3 majority, interpreting the longstanding federal ban on sex discrimination in the workplace to cover bias on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
The decision could have a broad practical impact. More than half the U.S. states don’t cover sexual orientation and gender identity through their own anti-discrimination laws.
MacDailyNews Note: Last summer, Apple was one of over 200 U.S. firms to call on the Supreme Court to recognize LBGTQ rights.
The three dissenting justices (Alito, Kavanaugh, Thomas) explain that they voted in the minority basically because in the U.S., Congress makes the laws, not the judicial branch; they refuse to legislate from the bench (i.e. separation of powers).
In dissent, Justice Kavanaugh wrote:
Like many cases in this Court, this case boils down to one fundamental question: Who decides? Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination “because of ” an individual’s “race, color, religion, sex, or na- tional origin.” The question here is whether Title VII should be expanded to prohibit employment discrimination because of sexual orientation. Under the Constitution’s separation of powers, the responsibility to amend Title VII belongs to Congress and the President in the legislative process, not to this Court…
The Court has previously stated, and I fully agree, that gay and lesbian Americans “cannot be treated as social outcasts or as inferior in dignity and worth.” [bold emphasis added – MDN Ed.]
…But we are judges, not Members of Congress. And in Alexander Hamilton’s words, federal judges exercise “neither Force nor Will, but merely judgment.” The Federalist No. 78, p. 523 (J. Cooke ed. 1961). Under the Constitution’s separation of powers, our role as judges is to interpret and follow the law as written, regardless of whether we like the result… Our role is not to make or amend the law. As written, Title VII does not prohibit employment discrimination because of sexual orientation.
The full U.S. Supreme Court opinion for BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY, GEORGIA is here.