Rights of LGBTQ+ community staggers under Justice Barrett

The courts have seen a stark contrast between the rulings of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – who fought against all kinds of discrimination – and her successor Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who opposes abortion and the rights of people from the LGBTQ+ community.

The glaring difference surfaced during the November 4, 2020 case of Fulton v. City of Philadelphia. The case involved a religious-based adoption and foster care agency that refused to provide services to married same-sex couples. The contract of the agency which runs of Catholic beliefs was canceled by Philadelphia for being discriminatory in nature. The diocese in turn sued the city for discriminating against their religious beliefs.

In a landmark judgment last year, when Ginsburg was still in court, the Supreme Court declared that terminating employees based on sexual orientation is a violation of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

Despite the sense of optimism that the  Supreme Court’s judgment provided, the future at this point looks bleak for the community. Justice Amy Coney Barrett along with Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Neil Gorsuch backed unanimously the church.

CSS and the archdiocese had sued the City of Philadelphia under the clauses of free exercise and free speech and the establishment clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The CSS had claimed that there was alleged discrimination against them perpetrated by the city government.

The case sets the LGBTQ+ community’s right to be free from discrimination against the right to practice religion freely.