LGBT issues
April 22, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Supreme Court has granted certiorari in three key cases where the issue is whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT individuals from employment discrimination. The cases are Bostock v. Clayton County, Altitude Express v. Zarda, and Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC. Bostock and Zarda raise the question of whether Title VII protects gays and lesbians from employment discrimination. In Harris Funeral Homes, the issue
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April 20, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
There’s a controversy at Yale Law School over a policy whereby Yale gives financial support for public-interest fellowships only if the employer does not discriminate in hiring based on gender and sexual orientation. Sen. Ted Cruz accuses Yale of blacklisting Christian organizations like Alliance Defending Freedom and of punishing Yale students whose values or religious faith leads them to work for such groups. Cruz says he intends to hold a
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April 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, is in many ways the most impressive member of the Democratic presidential field — a low bar, to be sure. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy Reserve, and took an unpaid seven months leave from his job as mayor to serve in Afghanistan. He was awarded the Joint Service Commendation Medal for his counterterrorism work there. Buttigieg is also
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April 8, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
Last month, Democrats introduced the Equality Act of 2019. It would modify existing civil rights legislation to ban discrimination against LGBTQ people in employment, housing, public accommodations, jury service, education, federal programs, and credit. It sounds good. No one should favor discriminating in employment, housing, etc. based on sexual orientation, etc. But there are serious problems with the Equality Act of 2019, such that Republicans should prevent its passage in
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February 9, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The moral argument against employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is, I believe, compelling. Accordingly, there’s a plausible argument that such discrimination should be outlawed. However, there is no credible case that Congress has outlawed it. This hasn’t stopped liberal judges from finding that Congress did so in Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Never mind that this Act was passed at a time when
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January 22, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
In this post from last week, I described how the Supreme Court has avoided hearing cases relating to key LGBT issues that ought to be decided one way or the other. Most notably, it has ducked the issue of whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of. . .sex,” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lower
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January 14, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The Supreme Court has been presented with two sets of cases relating to issues at the core of the LGBT agenda. Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia and Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda raise the question of whether discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitutes prohibited employment discrimination “because of. . .sex,” within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Lower courts have divided
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January 11, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
We have just entered the eleventh year of the Obama Department of Labor, Alex Acosta presiding. I wrote here about how Acosta has preserved the radical Obama administration agenda in employment discrimination law, especially when it comes to manipulating statistics to find pay discrimination where none exists. I have also documented Acosta’s refusal to disturb pro-illegal immigrant policies imposed by the Obama administration through the Department of Labor. President Trump
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January 6, 2019 — Paul Mirengoff
The beginning of the new year brought an end to Chai Feldblum’s long tenure as EEOC commissioner. Last month, her supporters made a last ditch attempt to have her confirmed for another term. However, Sen. Mike Lee, who fought against her confirmation throughout 2018, wouldn’t budge. With Lee holding firm, Majority Leader McConnell did not allow a vote — one Feldblum almost certainly would have won. Had Lee been the
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August 15, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Jack Phillips is the Christian cake baker from Colorado who had to go all the way to the Supreme Court to avoid being punished after declining to bake a wedding cake for a couple celebrating their gay marriage. To have baked the cake would have violated his strongly held religious beliefs. The Colorado Civil Rights Commission didn’t care. It found him in violation of the law. The Supreme Court overturned
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August 12, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Earlier this month, Chai Feldblum, whose renomination as EEOC commissioner is stalled due to her positions on what should happen when considerations of gay dignity collide with considerations of religious liberty, tweeted: “After months of having my views misrepresented, I am finally speaking for myself.” She speaks for herself in this article called “What I Really Believe About Religious Liberty and LGBT Rights.” In her article, Feldblum tries to position
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April 25, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Mike Lee has been holding out against the renomination of Chai Feldblum for another term as EEOC Commissioner. Feldblum is the architect of the Obama administration’s LGBT policy and an enemy of religious freedom in virtually all cases where it stands in the way of gay “dignity,” as she sees it. I have heard that this week, Senate leadership is making another push to confirm Feldblum, along with two
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April 23, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Last night, I reported that, from what I’m hearing, Senate leadership is pushing to confirm Chai Feldblum as EEOC Commissioner this week. Feldblum, as we have discussed, is a left-wing radical who, among other things, formulated President Obama’s LBGT agenda. She thinks it’s fine if that agenda tramples religious freedom, as it often does. Sen. Mike Lee placed a hold on Feldblum’s nomination. However, the plan is to get Lee’s
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April 22, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Sen. Mike Lee has been fighting against the renomination of Chai Feldblum as EEOC Commissioner. Feldblum is the architect of President Obama’s radical LBGT agenda. She believes, among other things, that when religious liberty and sexual liberty conflict, sexual liberty should prevail in virtually all cases. The confirmation of Feldblum looked like a done deal in December. However, key social conservative groups sounded the alarm, and Sen. Lee placed a
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March 24, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
The Trump administration has overturned the policy of its predecessor on military service by transgender individuals. The reversal of policy, including the limited instances in which the prior policy will be honored, strikes me as sound. However, I lack the expertise to have a view that should be taken seriously by others. The same is true of the judges who, in another sign that the country is headed in the
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March 22, 2018 — Paul Mirengoff
Momentum is building against the renomination of Chai Feldblum as an EEOC commissioner. Glenn Beck has attacked the nomination. Various conservative organizations have called on their members to contact the White House to express opposition. The American Family Association, with Sandy Rios in the lead, has a petition opposing the nomination with more than 80,000 signatures. You can sign it by going here. With the nomination on the rocks, Carrie
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December 22, 2017 — Paul Mirengoff
The Coalition for Jewish Values (CJV) is, I believe, the largest rabbinic public policy organization in America. It articulates and advocates for public policy positions based upon traditional Jewish thought. Today the CJV sharply criticized the Trump Administration for re-nominating Chai Feldblum to the EEOC. Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Eastern Regional. Vice President of the CJV, explained: Feldblum has been truly unfriendly to accommodation of religious views. The decision to renew
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