Breaking News: Title VII Employment Discrimination

Most federal courts have expressly declined to hold that sexual orientation is a protected class under Title VII, although federal courts have recognized protections for LGBT employees under a gender-stereotyping theory of sex discrimination.
Last week, in Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, the Seventh Circuit rejected any distinction between sex discrimination based on sexual orientation and sex discrimination based on gender stereotyping noting that while courts have previously “described the line between a gender nonconformity claim and one based on sexual orientation as gossamer-thin; we conclude that it does not exist at all.” No different than other gender-stereotyping claims because discrimination based on sexual orientation flows from the premise that all men should date or marry women and that all women should date or marry men.
According to the Court, sexual orientation discrimination is sex discrimination.
Hively decision only applies to employers within the Seventh Circuit, including those in Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin, employers nationwide should be mindful that the EEOC currently takes the position that claims of discrimination based on sexual orientation are covered by Title VII. EEOC is accepting and investigating sex discrimination charges on that basis regardless of the employer’s location. The Hively decision creates a split among the Federal Courts of Appeal because last month, the Eleventh Circuit held that sexual orientation is not within a protected class under Title VII

1. Why does this only apply to employers in the Seventh Circuit?
2. What is the EEOC and how are they involved?
3. Does the U.S. Supreme Court have to take this appeal?
4. Is it likely that the Supreme Court will take the appeal? Why?

Breaking News: Title VII Employment Discrimination Most federal...