One Bright Ray Of Hope… EEOC

With all the negative stuff coming out of the Trump administration against us there is one federal agency that is still standing with us, for now.

Justice Department Urges Civil Rights Agency to Flip LGBT Stance
Bloomberg
By Ben Penn, Chris Opfer, and Paige Smith
August 13, 2019

The Trump Justice Department is urging the federal employment rights agency to change its position and tell the U.S. Supreme Court to rule that businesses can discriminate against transgender employees without violating the law, according to sources familiar with the deliberations.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has so far maintained its Obama-era position that businesses are banned from discriminating against LGBT workers because it’s a form of sex bias. But the Justice Department disagrees and is hoping to persuade the EEOC to flip sides. Political leadership in the Solicitor General’s office wants the EEOC on board to show the high court that the Trump administration is now unified in the belief that Congress didn’t have lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender workers in mind when it passed a federal workplace discrimination law more than five decades ago, sources said.

The DOJ has until Aug. 16 to lay out the government’s argument before the high court in a case involving a Michigan funeral home director who was fired after she announced she was transitioning to a woman. The EEOC successfully sued on behalf of the woman—Aimee Stephens—but the Justice Department is representing the commission before the Supreme Court. The high court will hear oral arguments in that case on Oct. 8, the same day the justices will also consider a pair of cases involving gay workers who say they were fired because of their sexual orientation.

This must be making Trump and Barr so mad; I can just hear Trump raging … “They are not on my team!”

And the EEOC seems to be holding tough.

The EEOC appears unlikely to reverse its position at this stage. The five-member commission, which currently has a 2-1 Republican majority with two vacancies, would need to vote and approve such a move, current and former EEOC sources said. Commissioners Victoria Lipnic (R) and Charlotte Burrows (D) have said they believe that LGBT discrimination is a form of sex bias already banned by federal law. Lipnic recently told the DOJ that she would vote against signing the brief, a source said.

Recently confirmed EEOC Chair Janet Dhillon (R) would have the authority to call a commission vote, but has not yet done so, according to sources. Both Dhillon and new EEOC General Counsel Sharon Gustafson, who was just sworn into office last week, have thus far shied away from offering their legal views on gay and transgender bias in the workplace.
[…]
Lipnic told Bloomberg Law last year that the EEOC will continue to investigate LGBT discrimination allegations as the case proceeds. Dhillon, the EEOC’s new chairwoman, hasn’t formally announced any change in that stance since being sworn in less than three months ago.

This really must be a burr under Trump’s skin because he appointed the commissioner.

If the EEOC holds strong against the pressure of the Trump administration there is good hope that we will prevail that is because the courts look favorably on a case that has the backing of the federal agency that is supposed to defend the plaintiffs.

I think that the Supreme Court case will all boil down to Chief Justice Roberts, I think he will be the swing vote on the court. I think he is going to take over Justice Kennedy’s social moderate position. Or at least I am hoping that he will be the swing vote.

There is no hope at all that justices Alito, Gorsuch, Thomas, and Kavanaugh will vote in favor of our human rights so that just leave Roberts to save us from discrimination and bigotry.