Suspicious packages outside Supreme Court as LGBTQ activists gather
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday waded into a major LGBT rights dispute over whether a landmark decades-old federal anti-discrimination law that prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of sex covers gay and transgender workers.
LGBT rights activists held a demonstration near the courthouse ahead of the scheduled start of the arguments at 10 a.m. (1400 GMT). But police moved demonstrators away from the plaza in front of the courthouse due to concern over "suspicious" packages.
The Supreme Court delivered an important gay rights decision in 2015 legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide. Its dynamics on LGBT issues, however, changed following the 2018 retirement of Justice Anthony Kennedy, a conservative who backed gay rights in major cases and wrote the same-sex marriage ruling.
At issue is whether gay and transgender people are protected under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which forbids employers from discriminating against employees on the basis of sex as well as race, color, national origin and religion.
