Supreme Court Delivers Temporary LGBTQ Victory in Religious Dispute
thegavoice.comChief Justice John Roberts and conservative Justice Brett Kavanaugh voted with the U.S. Supreme Court’s three liberal-leaning justices September 14 to reject a request that would have undermined a New York City law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in public accommodations.
While marking a temporary victory for civil rights for LGBTQ people, the 5 to 4 vote is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of whether the Supreme Court is inclined to allow entities to evade public accommodation laws by claiming a religious motive to discriminate.
That question will likely be resolved by another case, 303 Creative v. Elenis, which has already been accepted for argument before the Supreme Court in the coming 2022-23 session.
The Supreme Court vote this month came in response to an emergency request from Yeshiva University, asking the Supreme Court to issue a temporary stay on a New York State trial court decision—a first stage of litigation at which the Supreme Court seldom gets involved.
