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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House of Representatives,” Meritor Savings Bank, 477
U. S., at 63, by Representative Howard Smith, the Chair-
man of the Rules Committee. See 110 Cong. Rec. 2577
(1964). Representative Smith had been an ardent opponent
of the civil rights bill, and it has been suggested that he
added the prohibition against discrimination on the basis of
“sex” as a poison pill. See, e.g., Ulane v. Eastern Airlines,
Inc., 742 F. 2d 1081, 1085 (CA7 1984). On this theory, Rep-
resentative Smith thought that prohibiting employment
discrimination against women would be unacceptable to
Members who might have otherwise voted in favor of the
bill and that the addition of this prohibition might bring
about the bill’s defeat.35 But if Representative Smith had
been looking for a poison pill, prohibiting discrimination on
the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity would
have been far more potent. However, neither Representa-
tive Smith nor any other Member said one word about the
possibility that the prohibition of sex discrimination might
have that meaning. Instead, all the debate concerned dis-
crimination on the basis of biological sex.36 See 110 Cong.
Rec. 2577–2584.
   Representative Smith’s motivations are contested, 883 F.
3d, at 139–140 (Lynch, J., dissenting), but whatever they

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