The US Justice Department on Wednesday argued in a major federal lawsuit that a 1964 civil rights law doesnt protect gay workers from discrimination, thereby diverging from a separate, autonomous federal agency that had supported the gay plaintiffs case.
The Trump administrations filing is unusual in part because the Justice Department isnt a party in the case, and the department doesnt typically weigh in on private employment lawsuits.
But in an amicus brief filed at the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, lawyers under Attorney General Jeff Sessions contend that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans sex discrimination, does not cover sexual orientation.
