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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990 (CADC 1977). While to the modern eye each of these
examples may seem “plainly [to] constitut[e] discrimination
because of biological sex,” post, at 38 (ALITO, J., dissenting),
all were hotly contested for years following Title VII’s en-
actment. And as with the discrimination we consider today,
many federal judges long accepted interpretations of Title
VII that excluded these situations. Cf. post, at 21–22
(KAVANAUGH, J., dissenting) (highlighting that certain
lower courts have rejected Title VII claims based on homo-
sexuality and transgender status). Would the employers
have us undo every one of these unexpected applications
too?
   The weighty implications of the employers’ argument
from expectations also reveal why they cannot hide behind
the no-elephants-in-mouseholes canon. That canon recog-
nizes that Congress “does not alter the fundamental details
of a regulatory scheme in vague terms or ancillary provi-
sions.” Whitman v. American Trucking Assns., Inc., 531
U. S. 457, 468 (2001). But it has no relevance here. We
can’t deny that today’s holding—that employers are prohib-
ited from firing employees on the basis of homosexuality or
transgender status—is an elephant. But where’s the
mousehole? Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination in
employment is a major piece of federal civil rights legisla-
tion. It is written in starkly broad terms. It has repeatedly
produced unexpected applications, at least in the view of
those on the receiving end of them. Congress’s key drafting
choices—to focus on discrimination against individuals and
not merely between groups and to hold employers liable
whenever sex is a but-for cause of the plaintiff ’s injuries—
virtually guaranteed that unexpected applications would
emerge over time. This elephant has never hidden in a
mousehole; it has been standing before us all along.
   With that, the employers are left to abandon their con-
cern for expected applications and fall back to the last line
                  Cite as: 590 U. S. ____ (2020)             31 Opinion of the Court

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