General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsFiring a New York Yankee fan? - Gorsuch
In landmark transgender-rights Supreme Court opinion, Justice Neil Gorsuch considers the hypothetical of whether someone could be fired for being a New York Yankees fan.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/white-house-blockade-on-house-testimony-endures-but-shows-cracks-11592559000 (subscription)
====
Really? why?
LakeArenal
(28,858 posts)JHB
(37,163 posts)Princess Turandot
(4,787 posts)..which seems straightforward. If you're asking why he decided to use a baseball team in the example, rather than something more severe sounding, I believe that it's a bit of whimsy. They do this from time to time. As it happens, Sonia Sotomayor, a daughter of the Bronx, is a very ardent Yankee fan, so it might have been directed at her. (When the Yankees visited PBO after winning the 2009 World Series, they made an additional stop at the courthouse, in order to show her the trophy in person.)
In one of his latter opinions, Scalia referred to Elizabeth Bennet in an example. Kagan has referenced SpiderMan.
Nor does it matter that, when an employer treats one employee worse because of that individuals sex, other factors may contribute to the decision. Consider an employer with a policy of firing any woman he discovers to be a Yankees fan. Carrying out that rule because an employee is a woman and a fan of the Yankees is a firing because of sex if the employer would have tolerated the same allegiance in a male employee. Likewise here.
When an employer fires an employee because she is homo-sexual or transgender, two causal factors may be in play both the individuals sex and something else (the sex to which the individual is attracted or with which the individual identifies). But Title VII doesnt care. If an employer would not have discharged an employee but for that individuals sex, the statutes causation standard is met, and liability may attach.