President Biden’s administration on Friday revoked a last-minute memorandum issued by former President Trump
Donald TrumpMcCarthy said he told Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene that he disagreed with his impeachment articles against Biden Biden, Trudeau agrees to meet next month that Trump planned to oust AG to overturn the election results in Georgia: report MOREfrom the Department of Justice that sought to limit the scope of a historic Supreme Court ruling on workplace discrimination against the LGBTQ community.
Greg Friel, acting head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, released a memo on Friday revoking a Trump administration directive in response to the June 2020 Supreme Court decision in Bostock v. Clayton County. Judges ruled in a 6-3 ruling that the country’s laws on sex discrimination in the workplace also apply to discrimination against LGBTQ individuals.
Wall Street Newspaper reported that the 23-page memorandum from the Trump Justice Department, dated last Sunday, said the court’s decision should not extend to areas where gender policies in bathrooms and sports teams are relevant. The memo also indicated that employers can cite religious beliefs as a justification for discrimination against LGBTQ employees.
However, Friday’s change, first reported by Politico, revoked the Trump administration memorandum, with Friel arguing that the directive was in conflict with a executive order of Biden which committed the federal government to prevent any kind of discrimination based on gender identity or sexual orientation.
“I decided that this memo is in many ways inconsistent with the EO,” Friel wrote in his Friday directive to colleagues in the civil rights division, according to Politico. “I intend to consult the Department’s leadership on the issue of revised guidelines that adapt to the policy established in the EO. As part of this process, we will seek expert opinion on the subject of the Division. ”
Biden’s executive order, one of several actions taken on his first day in office, asks federal government agencies to review current policies against sex discrimination to ensure that they prohibit discrimination against members of the LGBTQ community.
“Each person must be treated with respect and dignity and must be able to live without fear, no matter who they are or whom they love ”, states the order. “Adults must be able to earn a living and pursue a vocation knowing that they will not be fired, demoted or mistreated because of who goes home or because the way they dress is not in line with sex-based stereotypes.”
The order adds that, “Everyone must be treated equally under the law, regardless of their gender identity or sexual orientation.”
Last Sunday’s memo from former acting deputy attorney general John Daukas, publicly released the day before Trump stepped down, sided with justice Samuel Alito
Samuel AlitoLIVE COVERAGE OF INAUGURATION: Biden signs executive decrees; press secretary gives first briefing Barrett hears weather case against his father’s former employer, Shell. Supreme Court rejects Christian school push for separation of COVID-19 MOREBostock’s dissent in the case.
“We must hesitate to apply Bostock’s reasoning to different texts, adopted at different times, in different contexts,” wrote Daukas.
“Unlike racial discrimination, the Supreme Court has never considered that a religious employer’s decision not to hire homosexuals or transgender people ‘violates deeply and widely accepted the views of elementary justice’ or that the government has an ‘imperious’ interest in eradication of such conduct, ”added the memo, according to the Journal.