Today, the Unites States Supreme Court ruled that the law prohibits employment discrimination based on race, religion, national origin and sex. The Court held the ban of employment discrimination based on sex applies to gay and transgender workers. The Court considered two sets of cases; the first a pair of lawsuits by two gay men who claimed they were fired from their employment because they were gay. The second was by a transgender woman who was fired by she embraced her gender identity at work.
The Trump administration argued that the law prohibiting employment discrimination based on sex did not explicitly apply to protect gay and transgender employees. The decision of the Court in ruling against the Federal Government was based in reason and constitution law, explaining discrimination “because of sex”, inherently includes discrimination against workers because of a change in their sex, and that sexual orientation discrimination is motivated, at least partially by sex and therefore a subset of sex discrimination.
In New Jersey, and many other states, additional protections against employment discrimination, perhaps in an even more encompassing then the Civil Rights Act, prohibits any adverse employment decision based upon sex. For years, sexual discrimination was prevalent, and perhaps even tolerated in the workplace. Many aggrieved workers suffered extreme financial, social, psychological and perhaps even personal injuries due actions by employers based on sex. The New Jersey Law Against Discrimination provides a mechanism for fair and reasonable compensation to victims of such abuse. The law, both at the federal and state levels continue to make employment safer and fairer for employees. The decisions today by the Unites States Supreme Court extend that trend.
