These Cases You Should Know

There was an article in Time last year about the Supreme Court and the cases that have affected the LGBTQ+ community (In reality they are on cases that affect the Ls and Gs).

9 Landmark Supreme Court Cases That Shaped LGBTQ Rights in America
By Tara Law
October 8, 2019

he United States has witnessed a remarkable shift in LGBTQ rights and visibility in the 50 years since the Stonewall uprising — and in just the last few years, LGBTQ people have won the right to marry, have hit a record high in representation on television and have seen the first openly gay major presidential candidate begin his campaign.

But the path of LGBTQ rights in America has not been a simple one. And just as advocates fought their battle American culture, they also did so in the courts, including the U.S. Supreme Court. Over the last half a century, the court first denied and then affirmed that LGBTQ people have the right to consensual sex, and then the right to marry whom they choose.
[…]
One, Inc. v. Olesen (1958)
One of the first Supreme Court cases to consider LGBTQ rights concerned freedom of speech.

In 1953, a publisher associated with the Los Angeles chapter of the Mattachine Society, one of the country’s first “homophile” groups, released something unique for its time: ONE: The Homosexual Magazine. The magazine, which is considered by One Archives Foundation to be America’s first widely-distributed magazine for gay readers, included articles, editorials, short stories and other content. Not long after publication began, its August and October editions were seized by the Los Angeles postal authorities. Authorities argued that the publication violated obscenity laws.

In its decision, the Supreme Court tossed out a lower court’s ruling, and established that material aimed at a gay audience was not inherently obscene. The decision validated that people had the right to publish LGBTQ media.
[...]
Baker v. Nelson (1972)The Supreme Court considered the issue of marriage equality for the first time in 1972.
[…]
Bowers v. Hardwick (1986)
The LGBTQ rights movement was dealt a major blow when the court decided to uphold a Georgia sodomy law in 1986.
[…]
Romer v. Evans (1996)
In this decision, the Supreme Court ruled that laws couldn’t single out LGBTQ people to take away their rights.
[…]
As Loewy explains, “In Romer, the Supreme Court recognized for the first time that carving LGBTQ people out of protections that everybody else could have access to violated equal protection.”
[…]
Boy Scouts of America v. Dale (1996)
The same year the court found that laws couldn’t single out LGBTQ people, the Supreme Court also considered whether a private organization could single them out with specific rules — and found in favor of that organization.

And the biggie was…

Lawrence v. Texas (2003)
The Court ultimately eliminated sodomy laws in 2003, overruling Bowers v. Hardwick with a vote of 6-3.

Justice Kennedy delivered the opinion, saying that the due process clause of the fourteenth amendment gave the petitioners “the full right to engage in private conduct without government intervention… The Texas statute furthers no legitimate state interest which can justify its intrusion into the individual’s personal and private life.”

The article goes on to list other cases…

United States v. Windsor (2013)
Masterpiece Cakeshop, Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission (2018)

But I think that missed listing these cases,

• Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins (1989) The Supreme Court ruled that employment discrimination based on sex stereotypes is recognized as unlawful sexual discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
• Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Serv., Inc. (1998) In this case, the Court held that sex discrimination consisting of same-sex sexual harassment can form the basis for a valid claim under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

The Price Waterhouse case is the basis for the courts to find that LGBTQ+ people are covered by Title VII because the Supreme Court ruled that sex stereotypes applies to sexual orientation and gender identity (SO/GI) because what could be could be more sex stereotyping LGBTQ+ people and that is the case that the Supreme Court heard back in October and they will probably issue their ruling in June.

The cases that they heard back in October were about a gay man who was fired for being gay and a trans woman who was fired because she transitioned on the job. In both cases the EEOC ruled in their favors and the cases have been appealed all the way up to the Supreme Court.

My predictions…

Chief Justice Roberts is presiding over the Senate Impeachment trial and I think it is going to effect him deeply. I wrote this on a friend’s Facebook page,

I wonder how this trial is affecting Chief Justice Roberts? Will it change how he views on the Supreme Court? Will it change his views on Congress? Will it change his opinion of the conservatives and the Republicans?

I think (or maybe hope) that it will make him more liberal, I think it will wake him up on the liberal/conservative divide and that he will come down on our side in these cases and rule that we are covered by Title VII and Title IX and the ruling will be 5 – 4 in our favor.