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Tag: Sarah Riskin

Newsroom image for the post Despite Attorney General’s Memo, Employers Should Prohibit Gender Identity Discrimination

Posted October 5, 2017 with Tags , ,

Despite Attorney General’s Memo, Employers Should Prohibit Gender Identity Discrimination

On October 4, 2017, Attorney General Jeff Sessions issued a memorandum that the Department of Justice is reversing its position with regards to discrimination on the basis of gender identity. Under the Obama administration, the Justice Department previously announced that it considered discrimination on the basis of gender identity to be a form of sex discrimination under Title VII.

Newsroom image for the post Washington’s Whiplash: Sexual Orientation Discrimination and Title VII

Posted July 27, 2017 with Tags , , ,

Washington’s Whiplash: Sexual Orientation Discrimination and Title VII

In the last six months, the scope of federal protection against discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation (and gender identity) has been a hot topic in the courts and Trump administration. During the Obama administration, federal agencies and the Department of Justice argued in favor of such protection. The Trump administration is taking the opposite approach, and yesterday the Department of Justice filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit explicitly arguing that Title VII does not prohibit sexual orientation discrimination. The courts are divided. In the spring of 2017, the Seventh Circuit ruled that sexual orientation discrimination is sex discrimination under Title VII, while the Eleventh Circuit rejected that view. The Second Circuit is weighing the issue, and in the meantime, what's an employer to do?

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