LGBTQ+ Worker Rights Battle to Heat Up Post-Fifth Circuit Ruling

A federal appeals court’s decision this week finding that religious employers can skirt liability for LGBTQ+ workers’ discrimination claims has created additional uncertainty and opened the door to more litigation.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit largely affirmed a lower court order that the Religious Freedom Restoration Act shields businesses like plaintiff Braidwood Management Inc., a Christian-run health-care provider, from gender identity and sexual orientation bias claims under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Another plaintiff, religious nonprofit Bear Creek Bible Church, could also refuse to hire and can fire LGBTQ+ employees under Title VII’s ...