Landry signs onto brief asking the Supreme Court to rule it is legal to fire LGBTQ people
LITTLE ROCK – Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry has signed on to a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court on Aug. 23 asking the court to rule against three individuals who had been fired for being LGBTQ. The three cases include the first transgender civil rights case to be heard by the high court.
“Once again, Attorney General Landry is signing on to an extreme out-of-state effort to discriminate against and target the very Louisianans he’s supposed to protect,” said Alanah Odoms Hebert, ACLU of Louisiana executive director. “Discrimination is not a Louisiana value, but Attorney General Landry is asking the Supreme Court to condone discrimination against LGBTQ people and make it easier for them to be denied health care, kicked out of their homes, and fired from their jobs because of who they are.”
The employees in these cases, including ACLU clients Aimee Stephens who was fired for being transgender and Don Zarda who was fired for being gay, have argued that discrimination against LGBTQ people is unlawful sex discrimination. A number of federal appeals courts have said that the Civil Rights Act and other federal laws that prohibit sex discrimination apply to LGBTQ people, as have dozens of state and district courts.
Earlier this year, 206 major corporations signed a “friend of the court” brief telling the U.S. Supreme Court that LGBTQ people should continue to be protected from discrimination.
The cases will be argued before the U.S. Supreme Court on October 8.
