Wednesday, October 17, 2018

Anti-LGBTQ groups filing lawsuits hoping to take advantage of Kavanaugh being confirmed to SCOTUS

Kavanaugh

From Chris Johnson of The Washington Blade comes the news that the anti-LGBTQ industry is too hungry for court victories to even care about style points.  To say that they are happy that Kavanaugh is on SCOTUS seems to be an understatement:

Precisely on cue with the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh to the U.S. Supreme Court, anti-LGBT groups have filed lawsuits challenging LGBT rights that may in the near future serve to test the new justice on his position on the issue.

The complaints — two filed in federal court, one filed in state court — were filed in Texas and seek to challenge the City of Austin’s LGBT-inclusive non-discrimination ordinance and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the U.S. agency charged with federal employment civil rights law, over its interpretation of Title VII to prohibit anti-LGBT discrimination in the workforce.

 . . . .Conspicuously, the two federal lawsuits were filed on Oct. 6, the exact date Kavanaugh was confirmed as a U.S. associate justice to the Supreme Court. Kavanaugh won’t have a chance to act on the newly filed lawsuits anytime soon, but they will likely percolate through the courts, giving anti-LGBT groups the opportunity to file petitions for review.

The newly confirmed justice, chosen by President Trump from a list of potential nominees backed by the Federalist Society and the anti-LGBT Heritage Foundation, could be the fifth and deciding vote on whether to preserve LGBT rights if the petitions in the federal cases come before the Supreme Court. (The lawsuit in state court raising state claims will be left to Texas state court. Kavanaugh or the Supreme Court wouldn’t be asked to review the decisons.)

Now before you begin wringing your hands and spewing portents of doom, I suggest you do two things:

1. Read the article in its entirety.

2. Do not freak out and keep in mind that while it is (FINALLY) obvious to most that the right has a problem with defending their arguments in court and thereby have to create a rigged judiciary, that doesn't mean they are going to defeat us.  Their abandoning all pretenses of the morality and fairness will hurt them in the eyes of the public as long as we make an effort to point it out.