Texas Ruling Opens Route for Religious Carveouts to LGBT Rights

A Texas federal judge recently laid a path allowing for-profit businesses to use religion as a shield against LGBT anti-discrimination claims, but attorneys and academics question whether it’ll survive appellate review or make its way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

District Judge Reed O’Connor’s opinion—weighing in on several questions left unanswered by the Supreme Court’s landmark 2020 decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, Ga.—found that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act and the First Amendment can protect Christian-run health-care businesses from LGBT bias liability. He also said churches and other nonprofits can similarly escape liability under Title VII of the ...