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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might or might not qualify as unlawful discrimination or
find justifications under other provisions of Title VII are
questions for future cases, not these.
   Separately, the employers fear that complying with Title
VII’s requirement in cases like ours may require some em-
ployers to violate their religious convictions. We are also
deeply concerned with preserving the promise of the free
exercise of religion enshrined in our Constitution; that
guarantee lies at the heart of our pluralistic society. But
worries about how Title VII may intersect with religious lib-
erties are nothing new; they even predate the statute’s pas-
sage. As a result of its deliberations in adopting the law,
Congress included an express statutory exception for reli-
gious organizations. §2000e–1(a). This Court has also rec-
ognized that the First Amendment can bar the application
of employment discrimination laws “to claims concerning
the employment relationship between a religious institu-
tion and its ministers.” Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lu-
theran Church and School v. EEOC, 565 U. S. 171, 188
(2012). And Congress has gone a step further yet in the
Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993 (RFRA), 107
Stat. 1488, codified at 42 U. S. C. §2000bb et seq. That stat-
ute prohibits the federal government from substantially
burdening a person’s exercise of religion unless it demon-
strates that doing so both furthers a compelling governmen-
tal interest and represents the least restrictive means of
furthering that interest. §2000bb–1. Because RFRA oper-
ates as a kind of super statute, displacing the normal oper-
ation of other federal laws, it might supersede Title VII’s
commands in appropriate cases. See §2000bb–3.
   But how these doctrines protecting religious liberty inter-
act with Title VII are questions for future cases too. Harris
Funeral Homes did unsuccessfully pursue a RFRA-based
defense in the proceedings below. In its certiorari petition,
however, the company declined to seek review of that ad-
verse decision, and no other religious liberty claim is now
                  Cite as: 590 U. S. ____ (2020)           33 Opinion of the Court

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