Zeb Anderson Discusses Landmark Civil Rights Federal Ruling with N.C. Lawyers Weekly

In the North Carolina Lawyers Weekly article, “U.S. Supreme Court’s LGBTQ rights ruling is a big change for N.C.,” employment attorney Zeb Anderson is quoted on the impact the historic civil rights decision has on all employers nationwide and especially in North Carolina. The high court’s decision on June 15, 2020 protects LGBTQ employees from discrimination and concludes that the firing of an employee based on sexual orientation or transgender status violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

“For employers that already have internal policies prohibiting harassment of LGBTQ employees, they’re not being told to do anything different from what they’ve already been doing,” said Zeb. “But even for those companies, I’d say this decision is very significant. It’s one thing when an employer has a written policy and if breached, oh well, that employee breached your policy. It’s another thing if that becomes a violation of federal law.”

The impact this decision has on North Carolina specifically is huge. The article mentions that some federal circuit courts of appeals had already ruled that Title VII protected LGBTQ employees, but the 4th Circuit, which includes North Carolina, had not. North Carolina doesn’t have any state laws that protect LGBTQ employees from discrimination; therefore, this decision is noteworthy for both North Carolina employers and employees.

N.C. Lawyers Weekly subscribers can read the full article here.

North Carolina Lawyers Weekly provides essential legal news and court decision coverage highlighting developments in case law, changes to court rules, verdict & settlement reports and all other news vital to North Carolina lawyers. Lawyers Weekly covers all decisions issued by the North Carolina Supreme Court and the North Carolina Court of Appeals, in addition to the hundreds of rulings from state Circuit Court judges, U.S. District Court judges, 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges and other state agencies.