WASHINGTON, D.C. – 128 Members of Congress, led by Senators Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) and Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI), have filed an amicus brief in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc., arguing that workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity is already prohibited under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 since these types of discrimination are inherently linked to sex discrimination. Discrimination on the basis of sex is banned under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
“Different interpretations of Title VII have led to uncertainty in the workplace and left LGBT Americans inconsistently protected from workplace harassment and discrimination, despite applicable federal law,” wrote the Senators and Representatives. “We firmly believe that Title VII’s sex discrimination provision already prohibits discrimination based on an individual’s sexual orientation and gender identity, and we urge the Court to overrule erroneous Second Circuit precedent to the contrary.”
Merkley, Baldwin and Cicilline are lead cosponsors of the Equality Act, legislation that would clarify and expand current civil rights laws to better protect people of color, women and LGBT Americans from discrimination. Among other provisions, the Equality Act would clarify existing law by adding sexual orientation and gender identity to the list of explicitly protected classes in the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Senators and Representatives wrote in the brief that “the Equality Act acknowledges that Title VII already protects against sexual orientation and gender identity discrimination. Amici explicitly sought not to overrule case law and administrative holdings that discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity are sex discrimination. We therefore took a ‘belt and suspenders’ approach when drafting the Equality Act’s substantive provisions. [T]he Equality Act would amend Title VII to explicitly include ‘sexual orientation’ and ‘gender identity’ as protected characteristics alongside ‘sex.’ We believed this would help clarify the statute for the average American who would look at its text without the benefit of legal experience or a repository of case law.”
A copy of the full brief can be found here. A full list of the Senators and Representatives signing the brief can be found below.
U.S. Senators:
1) Jeffrey A. Merkley
2) Tammy Baldwin
3) Cory A. Booker
4) Patrick Leahy
5) Edward J. Markey
6) Al Franken
7) Barbara A. Mikulski
8) Patty Murray
9) Mazie K. Hirono
10) Ron Wyden
11) Dianne Feinstein
12) Sheldon Whitehouse
13) Kirsten Gillibrand
14) Sherrod Brown
15) Brian Schatz
16) Bernard Sanders
17) Jack Reed
18) Martin Heinrich
19) Richard Blumenthal
20) Mark R. Warner
21) Richard J. Durbin
22) Tim Kaine
23) Gary C. Peters
U.S. Representatives:
1) David N. Cicilline
2) Nancy Pelosi
3) Steny H. Hoyer
4) Theodore E. Deutch
5) Eleanor Holmes Norton
6) Mike Quigley
7) Jackie Speier
8) Elizabeth H. Esty
9) Brad Ashford
10) Grace F. Napolitano
11) Mark Pocan
12) Michael M. Honda
13) Robert A. Brady
14) Barbara Lee
15) Dina Titus
16) Bonnie Watson Coleman
17) Raúl M. Grijalva
18) Frederica S. Wilson
19) Tony Cárdenas
20) Stephen F. Lynch
21) Juan Vargas
22) Ruben Gallego
23) Tim Ryan
24) Sean Patrick Maloney
25) Donald Norcross
26) Henry C. “Hank” Johnson Jr.
27) Steve Israel
28) Suzanne Bonamici
29) Bill Foster
30) Jerrold Nadler
31) Alan Lowenthal
32) Donald S. Beyer Jr.
33) Patrick E. Murphy
34) Julia Brownley
35) Janice Hahn
36) Matt Cartwright
37) James P. McGovern
38) Hakeem Jeffries
39) Norma J. Torres
40) Kathy Castor
41) Mike Thompson
42) José E. Serrano
43) Steve Cohen
44) Joe Crowley
45) Danny K. Davis
46) John Conyers Jr.
47) Scott H. Peters
48) Chris Van Hollen
49) Ed Perlmutter
50) Derek Kilmer
51) Diana DeGette
52) Zoe Lofgren
53) Jan Schakowsky
54) Lois Capps
55) Eric Swalwell
56) Suzan DelBene
57) Dan Kildee
58) Grace Meng
59) Alan Grayson
60) Alcee L. Hastings
61) Sam Farr
62) Betty McCollum
63) Mark Takano
64) Rubén Hinojosa
65) Niki Tsongas
66) Sander M. Levin
67) André Carson
68) Debbie Wasserman Schultz
69) Nydia M. Velázquez
70) Ted W. Lieu
71) Lois Frankel
72) Linda T. Sánchez
73) Joseph P. Kennedy
74) Adam B. Schiff
75) Jared Polis
76) Seth Moulton
77) Denny Heck
78) Debbie Dingell
79) Frank Pallone, Jr.
80) Tammy Duckworth
81) William R. Keating
82) Lucille Roybal-Allard
83) Peter Welch
84) Loretta Sanchez
85) Ben Ray Luján
86) Kathleen M. Rice
87) Luis V. Gutiérrez
88) Carolyn B. Maloney
89) Gregory W. Meeks
90) Keith Ellison
91) James R. Langevin
92) Katherine Clark
93) Brendan F. Boyle
94) Susan Davis
95) Elijah E. Cummings
96) Marc Veasey
97) Joaquin Castro
98) John Garamendi
99) Jim McDermott
100) Yvette D. Clarke
101) Brian Higgins
102) Robert C. Scott
103) Jim Himes
104) Chellie Pingree
105) Jared Huffman
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