More than 200 corporations are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that federal civil rights law bans job discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The companies, according to CBS News, outlined their stance in a legal brief released Tuesday by a coalition of five LGBTQ rights groups.
The brief is being submitted to the Supreme Court this week ahead of oral arguments before the justices on Oct. 8 on three cases that may determine whether gays, lesbians and transgender people are protected from discrimination by existing federal civil rights laws.
Among the 206 corporations endorsing the brief were Amazon, American Airlines, Bank of America, Ben & Jerry’s, Coca-Cola, Domino’s Pizza, Goldman Sachs, IBM, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, Nike, Starbucks, Viacom, Walt Disney and Xerox. Two major league baseball teams, the San Francisco Giants and the Tampa Bay Rays, were among the group.
In their brief, the companies argued that a uniform federal rule is needed to protect LGBTQ employees equally in all 50 states.
Federal appeals courts in Chicago and New York have ruled recently that gay and lesbian employees are entitled to protection from discrimination. The federal appeals court in Cincinnati has extended similar protections for transgender people.
The question now is whether the Supreme Court will follow suit, given its conservative majority. The three cases are the court’s first on LGBTQ rights since the retirement last year of Justice Anthony Kennedy, who authored landmark gay rights opinions. Read the full story from CBSNews.
