Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall has spearheaded a 23-state coalition challenging a recent Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decision. The panel's ruling mandates that employers providing healthcare coverage must include sex-change operations for employees or risk liability under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
Marshall, along with the attorneys general of Florida and Georgia, is urging the entire Eleventh Circuit to rehear the case and reverse the panel's decision. The case in question involves an employee who sought a sex-change operation to transition from male to female. When informed that the employer’s insurance would not cover the procedure, the employee filed a lawsuit under Title VII, which prohibits workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
A divided panel of the Eleventh Circuit ruled that failing to cover the operation could be considered a violation of Title VII. "This case calls out for correction by the full Eleventh Circuit," stated Attorney General Marshall. "It is hard to overstate how radical the panel’s decision is. With its interpretation of a federal statute meant to require equal treatment in the workplace, the court fundamentally transformed Title VII to require favored treatment for employees who identify as transgender by mandating coverage for any number of treatments or operations such an employee could want."
Marshall further expressed concerns about broader implications: "The court’s rewrite of Title VII will produce wide-ranging consequences for employers, who now face both greater liability and diminished clarity over how far the law extends. The Court must correct this decision."
Joining Alabama, Florida, and Georgia in filing this brief are Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio South Carolina South Dakota Texas Tennessee Utah Virginia and West Virginia.
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