R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
2020 United States Supreme Court case / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 590 U.S. ___ (2020), is a landmark[1] United States Supreme Court case which ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects transgender people from employment discrimination.
R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission | |
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Argued October 8, 2019 Decided June 15, 2020 | |
Full case name | R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, et al. |
Docket no. | 18-107 |
Citations | 590 U.S. ___ (more) 140 S. Ct. 1731 |
Argument | Oral argument |
Case history | |
Prior | Motion to dismiss denied, 100 F. Supp. 3d 594 (E.D. Mich. 2015); summary judgment granted, 201 F. Supp. 3d 837 (E.D. Mich. 2016); reversed, 884 F.3d 560 (6th Cir. 2018); cert. granted, 203 L. Ed. 2d 754 (2019). |
Questions presented | |
Whether Title VII prohibits discrimination against transgender people based on (1) their status as transgender or (2) sex stereotyping under Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins. | |
Holding | |
An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Gorsuch, joined by Roberts, Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
Dissent | Alito, joined by Thomas |
Dissent | Kavanaugh |
Laws applied | |
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act 1964 |
Aimee Stephens was a funeral home employee who had presented herself as male up until 2013. On July 31, 2013, she wrote to her employer, the Harris Funeral Homes group, so that they could be prepared for her decision to undergo gender reassignment surgery, telling them that after a vacation, she planned to return dressed in female attire that otherwise followed the employee handbook. She was fired shortly after the letter was sent, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission helped to represent Stephens in court. The District Court ruled for the funeral homes, stating Title VII did not cover transgender people and that as a religious organization under the Religious Freedom Restoration Act, the company had a right to dismiss Stephens for non-conformity. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed the decision, concluding Title VII did include protection for transgender people, which Harris Funeral Homes petitioned the Supreme Court to review. About a month before the Supreme Court decision, Stephens died from health complications. Representation of her case continued through her estate.
The case was heard on October 8, 2019, alongside two other cases, Bostock v. Clayton County and Altitude Express, Inc. v. Zarda which dealt with Title VII protection related to sexual orientation. The Court ruled in a 6–3 decision under Bostock but covering all three cases on June 15, 2020, that Title VII protection extends to gay and transgender people.[2]