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NATIONAL NEWS
Thursday, Oct. 10, 2019 | Indiana Daily Student | idsnews.com
SCOTUS debates whether discrimination by 'sex' includes gay and transgender workers Tribune News Service
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court hears arguments today on whether the Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids employers from firing people because of their sexual orientation or gender identity. The question for the justices boils down to the meaning of the word "sex." The historic law says companies as well as public agencies may not discriminate against employees because of "sex." This had been understood for decades as protecting women from being denied jobs or promotions that went to men instead. But in recent years, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which enforces the law, decided it also protects gays, lesbians and transgender employees. It did soby concluding that discrimination based on sexual orientation or gender identity is illegal discrimination because of sex. U.S. appeals courts in New York and Chicago similarly found the law applies to gay and lesbian workers, while the Cincinnati appeals court said it applies to transgender people. Under President Donald Trump, the Justice Department will argue that the law should not cover gay, lesbian and transgender workers. It is the first significant gay rights case before the high court since Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh replaced the retired Justice Anthony M. Kennedy. Though a moderate conservative, Kennedy wrote all of the court's opinions upholding the rights of gays and lesbians, including the 2015 decision upholding the right to marry for same-sex
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
The Supreme Court opens its new term on Monday facing decisions on the Dreamers, LGBTQ rights, religion and abortion. United States Supreme Court (Front L-R) Associate Justice Stephen Breyer, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Chief Justice John Roberts, Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Associate Justice Samuel Alito, Jr., (Back L-R) Associate Justice Neil Gorsuch, Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan and Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh pose for their official portrait at the in the East Conference Room at the Supreme Court building November 30, 2018, in Washington, DC.
couples. At present, federal antidiscrimination laws do not protect gays, lesbians or transgender workers. The House under Democratic control passed the Equality Act in May to amend the Civil Rights Act and to prohibit discrimination on the basis of "sexual orientation, gender identity, pregnancy
(or) childbirth." But the measure is stalled in the Republican-controlled Senate. California and 21 other states forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation, and several other states have such protections for public employees. But there are few such protections in the South and much of the Midwest and Great Plains.
The justices will hear arguments in three cases: two involving gay men and one involving a transgender woman. Gerald Bostock said he was fired from his position as a child welfare services coordinator in Clayton County, Georgia, not long after he joined a gay softball league. He appealed in Bostock v. Clayton County
after his discrimination suit was tossed out. In 2010, Donald Zarda was fired from his job as a sky-diving instructor in New York after jokingly assuring a woman customer she had nothing to fear from being strapped to him in the air because he was gay. He later died in an accident, but his sister has pursued his suit in Altitude Express v. Zarda.
Aimee Stephens said she was fired from her job at a family-run funeral home in Detroit after she returned from a vacation as a woman. The EEOC sued on her behalf, but the court will hear the employer's appeal in R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes vs. EEOC. By David G. Savage Los Angeles Times
Alaska Natives, fishermen sue EPA for reversing decision Tribune News Service
SEATTLE — Trump administration officials broke the law when they reversed course and gave a green light to a proposed copper and gold mine near Alaska's Bristol Bay, mining opponents said in a lawsuit filed Tuesday. Alaska Native, commercial fishing and economic development organizations said the Environmental Protection Agency's decision July 30 to step aside and let the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers determine whether to permit the Pebble Mine was "arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion" and illegal. The lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Anchorage is the latest challenge to the project that the EPA's Seattle branch criticized in written comments July 1 before
abruptly reversing course, withdrawing the agency's option to block the proposed open-pit copper and gold mine. Last year, then-EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt decided to preserve the agency's veto option over the Army Corps permitting process, saying that mining in Bristol Bay's headwaters could risk harming the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery. Representatives of the groups that filed the suit said at a news conference Tuesday in Anchorage that the Trump administration's reversal ignored years of EPA research and public comments. "The politicians jumped in and changed the rules at the last minute," said commercial fisherman Robin Samuelsen Jr., board chair-
man of the Bristol Bay Economic Development Corp., one of the plaintiffs. An EPA spokeswoman declined to comment. The lawsuit names as defendants the EPA, its general counsel, Matthew Leopold, and agency Seattle Administrator Chris Hladick. Mike Heatwole, a spokesman for the mining company, Pebble Ltd. Partnership, said that decisions on a "proposed determination," as the EPA's veto option is called, are "clearly within the discretion" of the agency administrator. The suit argues that the agency changed course without good reason or explanation required by law, and asks that a judge nullify the move. By Richard Read Los Angeles Times
TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE
The Newhalen River flows into Lake Iliamna in Newhalen, Alaska, a native fishing village located near the site of the proposed Pebble Mine. Local residents are divided over whether to allow development of the mine, which would provide jobs but pose potentially large threats of damage to the pristine surrounding environment.
CBP Chief: Harassing journalists 'absolutely unacceptable' Tribune News Service
WASHINGTON — Mark Morgan, the acting commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, told reporters at the White House on Tuesday that it is "absolutely
unacceptable" for his officers to stop a journalist "because they're a journalist." He was responding to a question, based in part, on an Oct. 3 incident between Defense One editor Ben Watson and a CBP officer at Dulles Internation-
al Airport. Defense One's report on the exchange alleged that "A U.S. passport screening official held a Defense One journalist's passport until he received an affirmative answer to this repeated question: 'You write propa-
ganda, right?'" and characterized the officer's actions as harassment. The question in Tuesday's briefing came from journalist Andrew Feinberg, who said this was one of a number of such incidents involving CBP
officers over the last year. Morgan encouraged journalists, or individuals who feel "inappropriately harassed," to report it to CBP's Office of Professional Responsibility or the Department of Homeland Security's
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inspector general. Internally, Morgan said his agency will "proactively" refer reports of harassment to the Office of Professional Responsibility. By Graham MacGillivray CQ-Roll Call