Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) on Monday praised a landmark Supreme Court decision finding that workers can’t be fired for being gay or transgender.
The court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which forbids discrimination on the basis of “sex,” applies to gay and transgender people.
Murkowski, one of the caucus’s most moderate members, said on Monday that she was “pleased” with the decision.
“People should not live in fear of being discriminated against or losing their job because of their LGBTQ status. … This is long overdue, and is significant progress as we seek to protect and uphold the rights and equality of all Americans,” she said in a statement.
Justice Neil Gorsuch, who was nominated by President Trump and confirmed in 2017, wrote for the majority that when an employer “fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender [that employer] fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex.”
“Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids,” he added.
GOP lawmakers have largely stayed silent on the ruling, which came as senators prepared to return to Washington, D.C., for the week.
But Gorsuch’s opinion has appeared to shock and rankle some conservative court watchers.
Judicial Crisis Network President Carrie Severino said the decision is the “hijacking of textualism.”
“Justice Scalia would be disappointed that his successor has bungled textualism so badly today, for the sake of appealing to college campuses and editorial boards,” she said in a statement.