Less than four months ago, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that the Department of Justice had concluded that the transgendered are among the classes of persons protected, unbeknownst to the framers of the legislation at the time, by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Tuesday’s press release announcing the filing of a lawsuit against Southeastern Oklahoma State University reiterated the new discovery, noting that Justice “takes the position that Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination is best read to extend the statute’s protection to claims based on an individual’s gender identity, including transgender status.” But as the press release also makes clear, the fact that this novel interpretation has only existed for four months will not stop Justice from suing institutions that were operating under a different set of rules for the intervening half century.
The press releases lays out the facts of the case as follows:
Tudor, backed by Justice, further accuses the university of wrongful termination of employment in retaliation for Tudor’s filing of a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC):
The EEOC, which has partnered with Justice in bringing this lawsuit, already made history in September of last year by filing two lawsuits in federal court alleging discrimination against transgendered employees.
For its part, via a statement as reported by the Washington Post, the university is “confident in its legal position and its adherence to all applicable employment laws,” but would not discuss the case due to the pending litigation.
Although this lawsuit is the first of its kind by the Justice Department, others may be in the works since acts preceding the announcement of the new Title VII interpretation are apparently fair game. Not only might this have various institutions wondering if they will find themselves targets of transgender-related lawsuits in the future, but also might have them wondering what other standards they may retroactively run afoul of if the Justice Department takes yet another look at Title VII somewhere down the road.
