NASHVILLE, Tenn. (CLARKSVILLENOW) – Tennessee has joined 15 other states to oppose a Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that protects transgender people by including them when referring to “sex” discrimination.
Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III made the announcement this week.
The states are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision of the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals interpreting the term “sex” in federal anti-discrimination law to include transgender status.
The court made the decision after determining a transgender employee at a Michigan funeral home was wrongfully fired for not adhering to the employer’s dress code. The court said the funeral home had violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which includes discrimination based on sex. (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. RG & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, Inc.)
The states in opposition of the ruling argue that when Congress enacted Title VII in 1964, it used the word “sex” to mean only biological sex, not gender identity.
“The Sixth Circuit’s decision in Harris essentially rewrote federal law,” Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III said in a statement. “Unless and until Congress affirmatively acts to change Title VII, it is up to the states, not the federal judiciary, to determine which protections, or not, should flow to individuals based on gender identity.”
Slattery said he believes the ruling has a “strong implication” for Tennessee schools. A transgender bathroom bill that sought to require students at public schools and colleges to use restrooms and locker rooms of their sex on their birth certificates failed in the TN Senate last year.
Other states joining the brief are Nebraska, Alabama, Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Kentucky, Maine, and Mississippi.
You can read the full text of the brief here.