Supreme Court declines gay rights work discrimination case

WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court is leaving in place a lower court ruling that a federal employment discrimination law doesn’t protect a person against discrimination based on their sexual orientation.

The court on Monday declined to take up the question of whether a law that bars workplace discrimination “because of…sex” covers discrimination against someone because of their sexual orientation.

President Barack Obama’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission took the view that it does. But President Donald Trump’s administration has argued that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 bars discrimination based on gender but doesn’t cover sexual orientation. Federal appeals courts are split on the issue. That means the issue is likely to come to the court again.

The case the Supreme Court declined to take involved Jameka Evans, a gay woman who worked as a hospital security officer in Georgia. Lower courts said she couldn’t use Title VII to sue for discrimination.

The Supreme Court didn’t explain why it was declining to hear the case. But the hospital where Evans worked, Georgia Regional Hospital, told the court there were technical legal problems with the case.