Bostock v. Clayton County

Gerald Bostock (plaintiff) worked for ten years as a child-welfare advocate for Clayton County, Georgia (defendant) until, shortly after he joined a gay softball league, the county fired him for conduct "unbecoming" an employee. He sued under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964; the trial court dismissed his claim, reasoning Title VII doesn't cover sexual-orientation discrimination, and the Eleventh Circuit affirmed. Two other circuits reached the opposite conclusion in similar cases: skydiving instructor Donald Zarda was fired days after mentioning he was gay, and funeral-home employee Aimee Stephens was fired after announcing she would begin living and working as a transgender woman. To resolve the split, the Supreme Court consolidated all three cases and granted certiorari (the Court's discretionary agreement to hear a case).