Sexuality and the Law Commons^™

How The First Forty Years Of Circuit Precedent Got Title Vii's Sex Discrimination Provision Wrong, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court will soon decide whether, under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, it is discrimination “because of sex” to fire an employee because of their sexual orientation or transgender identity. There’s a simple textual argument that it is: An employer cannot take action on the basis of an employee’s sexual orientation or transgender identity without considering the employee’s sex. But while this argument is simple, it was not one that federal courts adopted until recently. This has caused some judges to object that the simple argument must be inconsistent with the original meaning of Title …

Frontiers Of Sex Discrimination Law, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

A short time ago, the argument that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was considered a risky litigation tactic with little hope of success. One reason was the fear that extending sex discrimination law so far would upset all sex classifications, even those on restroom doors. But the landscape has shifted. The EEOC now takes the position that sex discrimination includes all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Administrative agencies interpret federal law to require that workers and students be allowed to use restrooms consistent with their gender identities. Some federal courts …

Inferring Desire, Jessica A. Clarke

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In the course of debates over same-sex marriage, many scholars have proposed new legal definitions of sexual orientation to better account for the role of relationships in constituting identities. But these discussions have overlooked a large body of case law in which courts are already applying this model of sexual orientation, with inequitable results.

This Article examines a set of fifteen years of sexual harassment decisions in which courts have endeavored to determine the sexual orientations of alleged harassers. Under federal law, sexual harassment is actionable because it is a subspecies of sex discrimination. A man who makes unwanted sexual …