A federal agency cannot force a Texas-based conservative Christian business to comply with policies barring discrimination against LGBTQ+ employees or job applicants, a federal appeals court has ruled.
Braidwood wants to make sure it is not required to hire or retain any employee who “engages homosexual or transgender conduct,” according to the district court judge who first ruled in the case in 2021. And the company objects to EEOC policies forbidding gender-specific dress codes or requirements that employees use “bathrooms that conform to biological sex.”that Title VII protects gay, lesbian and transgender people from discrimination in employment.
“The decision certainly narrowed some of the most troubling aspects of the district court’s decision. However, it still leaves a roadmap for other employers to discriminate,” Adam Pulver, an attorney for the nonprofit group Public Citizen, said Wednesday. The organization had filed a brief backing the government's opposition to the Braidwood suit.