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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Random House Dictionary 1307 (“coitus,” “sexual inter-
course” (defs. 5–6)); American Heritage Dictionary, at 1187
(“sexual intercourse” (def. 5)).19
   Aside from these, what is there? One definition, “to neck
passionately,” Random House Dictionary 1307 (def. 8), re-
fers to sexual conduct that is not necessarily heterosexual.
But can it be seriously argued that one of the aims of Title
VII is to outlaw employment discrimination against em-
ployees, whether heterosexual or homosexual, who engage
in necking? And even if Title VII had that effect, that is not
what is at issue in cases like those before us.
   That brings us to the two remaining subsidiary defini-
tions, both of which refer to sexual urges or instincts and
their manifestations. See the fourth definition in the Amer-
ican Heritage Dictionary, at 1187 (“the sexual urge or in-
stinct as it manifests itself in behavior”), and the fourth def-
inition in both Webster’s Second and Third (“[p]henomena
of sexual instincts and their manifestations,” Webster’s
New International Dictionary, at 2296 (2d ed.); Webster’s
Third New International Dictionary 2081 (1966)). Since
both of these come after three prior definitions that refer to
men and women, they are most naturally read to have the
same association, and in any event, is it plausible that Title
VII prohibits discrimination based on any sexual urge or
instinct and its manifestations? The urge to rape?
   Viewing all these definitions, the overwhelming impact is
that discrimination because of “sex” was understood during
the era when Title VII was enacted to refer to men and
women. (The same is true of current definitions, which are
reproduced in Appendix B, infra.) This no doubt explains
why neither this Court nor any of the lower courts have
tried to make much of the dictionary definitions of sex just
——————
  19 See American Heritage Dictionary 1188 (1969) (defining “sexual in-

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