Section 7

Citation: Section 7
Parent Document: Bostock v. Clayton County, 590 U.S. 644 (2020)
Jurisdiction: United States (federal)
Effective Date: 2020-06-15
Original Source: https://www.courtlistener.com/opinion/4760997/bostock-v-clayton-county/ ↗

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Analysis of the way Title VII's key language was used in books and articles during the relevant time period supports this conclusion. A study searched a vast database of documents from that time to determine how the phrase "discriminate against ... because of [some trait]" was used. Phillips, The Overlooked Evidence in the Title VII Cases: The Linguistic (and Therefore Textualist) Principle of Compositionality (manuscript, at 3) (May 11, 2020) (brackets in original), https://ssrn.com/abstract=3585940. The study found that the phrase was used to denote discrimination against "someone ... motivated by prejudice, or biased ideas or attitudes ... directed at people with that trait in particular." Id. , at 7 (emphasis deleted). In other words, "discriminate against " was "associated with negative treatment directed at members of a discrete group." Id., at 5. Thus, as used in 1964, "discrimination because of sex" would have been understood to mean discrimination against a woman or a man based on "unfair beliefs or attitudes" about members of that particular sex. Id., at 7.

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