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/ ↗

Full Text

2,205 chars

of ) broad language with wide-ranging effect. Not neces-
sarily because he was interested in rooting out sex discrim-
ination in all its forms, but because he may have hoped to
scuttle the whole Civil Rights Act and thought that adding
language covering sex discrimination would serve as a poi-
son pill. See C. Whalen & B. Whalen, The Longest Debate:
A Legislative History of the 1964 Civil Rights Act 115–118
(1985). Certainly nothing in the meager legislative history
of this provision suggests it was meant to be read narrowly.
   Whatever his reasons,      thanks to the broad language
Representative Smith introduced, many, maybe most, ap-
plications of Title VII’s sex provision were “unanticipated”
at the time of the law’s adoption. In fact, many now-obvious
applications met with heated opposition early on, even
among those tasked with enforcing the law. In the years
immediately following Title VII’s passage, the EEOC offi-
cially opined that listing men’s positions and women’s posi-
tions separately in job postings was simply helpful rather
than discriminatory. Franklin, 125 Harv. L. Rev., at 1340
(citing Press Release, EEOC (Sept. 22, 1965)). Some courts
held that Title VII did not prevent an employer from firing
an employee for refusing his sexual advances. See, e.g.,
Barnes v. Train, 1974 WL 10628, *1 (D DC, Aug. 9, 1974).
And courts held that a policy against hiring mothers but not
fathers of young children wasn’t discrimination because of
sex. See Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 411 F. 2d 1 (CA5
1969), rev’d, 400 U. S. 542 (1971) (per curiam).
   Over time, though, the breadth of the statutory language
proved too difficult to deny. By the end of the 1960s, the
EEOC reversed its stance on sex-segregated job advertis-
ing. See Franklin, 125 Harv. L. Rev., at 1345. In 1971, this
Court held that treating women with children differently
from men with children violated Title VII. Phillips, 400
U. S., at 544. And by the late 1970s, courts began to recog-
nize that sexual harassment can sometimes amount to sex
discrimination. See, e.g., Barnes v. Costle, 561 F. 2d 983,
30              BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY Opinion of the Court

Other Sections in This Document (1015)

Full Text