B.P.J. is a transgender girl in middle school who challenged her exclusion from participating in school sports by West Virginia's anti-transgender sports ban. A district court found that Title IX does not protect a transgender student’s right to participate in school sports consistent with the student’s gender identity. In a brief led by the National Women’s Law Center, ADL joined 51 organizations committed to gender justice to support B.P.J.’s appeal of…
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In Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison (1977), the Supreme Court held that an employer is required to allow a religious accommodation for an employee under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 unless doing so would constitute an “undue hardship” for the business. However, the Court defined an “undue hardship” as anything that imposes “more than a de minimis cost” for the employer — a very low standard that has made it difficult over the years…
Lonnie Billard, a former drama teacher and substitute teacher at Charlotte Catholic High School, was fired after posting on Facebook that he was planning to marry a man. ADL joined 47 organizations committed to gender justice and LGBTQ+ rights in an amicus brief supporting Mr. Billard. The brief, filed before the Fourth Circuit, was led by the National Women’s Law Center. It points out that Title VII provides necessary workplace civil rights protections for nearly one million employees…
This case involves a challenge to Indiana’s 2022 sports ban targeting transgender girls and young women. The ACLU brought the case on behalf of A.M., a 10-year-old transgender girl who was forced to leave her elementary school softball team as a result of the ban. A.M. won a preliminary injunction finding that the ban likely violates Title IX, and Indiana appealed. ADL joined 58 other organizations in an amicus brief led by the National Women’s Law Center in support of A.M. The…
This case involves Equal Protection Clause and Title IX challenges to a county school board policy that prohibits transgender students from using the restroom which conforms to their gender identity. ADL and 50 other organizations joined an amicus brief led by the National Women’s Law Center opposing this policy. ADL had joined a previous brief in this case in 2019, resulting in a favorable decision from an 11th Circuit panel. In an en banc hearing, the full 11th Circuit is revisiting…
The Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference (CIAC) has a policy that allows K-12 athletes to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. This inclusive policy and others like it help protect the safety and wellbeing of transgender youth, and help ensure that all women and girls can access the well-documented benefits of playing sports. In an amicus brief led by the National Women’s Law Center, ADL joined 34 other organizations in supporting CIAC against this…
Mississippi passed a law in 2018 that bars abortions after the 15th week of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. ADL joined with the National Women’s Law Center and 71 other organizations on an amicus brief urging that the law — an unmistakable challenge to Roe v. Wade — be found unconstitutional. The brief focuses on due process and explains that the devastating impact of allowing a pre-viability abortion ban to stand — or overturning the right to abortion entirely …
Alabama only allows people to change the gender marker on their driver’s licenses if they undergo surgical procedures and submit proof to the state, meaning that transgender people who do not want, cannot afford, or are medically unable to have the required surgeries are prevented from having a license that accurately reflects their gender. Carrying a license with an inaccurate gender marker puts transgender people — especially Black and brown transgender women — at a…
Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices and procedures that discriminate on the basis of race, color, or membership in language minority groups. In this case, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that two Arizona election provisions — one that prohibits third-party ballot collection and another that prohibits the counting of out-of-precinct votes — violated Section 2 because of their discriminatory impact on communities of color. The…
At issue in this case is the extent to which K-12 schools can regulate student speech that occurs off-campus. ADL joined a brief prepared by the National Women’s Law Center, Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund and Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, urging the Court to ensure that when it comes to off-campus speech, schools can regulate student bullying, harassment, or threats, but not speech that is merely perceived to substantially disrupt school activities. The…
This case challenges a law Louisiana passed in 2014 that imposed new requirements on abortion providers, including mandating that they have active admitting privileges at a local hospital. The impact of this law would be that only one abortion clinic would remain open in Louisiana, and there would not be any physician in the state providing abortions after 17 weeks. ADL joined with the National Women’s Law Center and 71 other organizations on an amicus brief urging that the law —…
In North Carolina, the state appellate courts have never, in the thirty years since Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79 (1986) (the seminal U.S. Supreme Court decision establishing the legal framework for claims of race discrimination in the exercise of peremptory strikes), found a single instance of discrimination against a juror of color, including in the two cases on appeal in this matter. ADL accordingly joined an amicus brief alongside a coalition of state and national criminal justice and…
At stake in this case are two interim final rules (IFRs) promulgated by the Trump administration in October 2017 that significantly broadened the religious exemption to the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) contraception mandate. Prior mandate regulations accommodated houses of worship and religiously affiliated organizations. The new exemption, however, effectively repeals the contraception mandate, broadly allowing employers and universities to invoke religion or morality to block their…
This case involves a state law prohibiting government workers from receiving spousal benefits if they are married to someone of the same sex. At issue is whether Obergefell, the U.S. Supreme Court case finding prohibitions against same-sex marriage unconstitutional, compels states only to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples, or compels states to afford same-sex couples equal treatment under the law, including access to public benefits. The Texas Supreme Court interpreted Obergefell…
This case involved allegations of racial bias on the part of a juror in a 2010 sexual assault trial in Colorado. Following a guilty verdict at trial, two jurors reported that a third juror had expressed racial bias against the defendant, who is Latino, during jury deliberations. The trial court denied the defendant’s motion for a new trial and refused to consider those statements of racial bias, finding that a Colorado rule of evidence barred their admission as evidence. ADL joined with…