Case: Individual Employment Rights/First Amendment (9th Cir.)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed a district court’s dismissal of Olympus Spa’s First Amendment claims challenging the Washington Law Against Discrimination’s application to its “biological women-only” entrance policy that excluded preoperative transgender women, finding that the law’s prohibition of discrimination based on gender identity in public accommodations didn’t violate the Spa’s rights to free speech, free exercise of religion, or freedom of association because WLAD is a neutral, generally applicable law that only incidentally burdens religious expression and speech while furthering the state’s legitimate interest in eliminating discrimination.

This story was produced by Bloomberg Law Automation and edited by Bloomberg Law ...