Issues@Hand

AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs

August 2020 – In a 6-3 vote, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 15 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBTQ persons from job discrimination. Ruling in Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, the court reinterpreted Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include sexual orientation and gender identity.

The opinion stunned conservatives because two supposed constitutional justices voted for this overreach of the Court’s authority – Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Neil Gorsuch, a Trump appointee, who wrote the opinion for the Court. Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh, and Clarence Thomas dissented.

In the dissent, Justice Alito wrote: “There is only one word for what the Court has done today: legislation. … A more brazen abuse of our authority to interpret statutes is hard to recall.”

“This Supreme Court ruling marks yet another in a growing list of betrayals of the U.S. Constitution by those sworn to uphold it,” said AFA president Tim Wildmon. “[T]rue patriots must peacefully continue to uphold the principles that have made this country so great.”

In the September issue, AFA Journal will feature a more in-depth analysis of the significance of this opinion and its likely impact on religious freedom.