OHIO — An Ohio woman is taking her fight to the U.S. Supreme Court after she said she lost out on a job opportunity.

What You Need To Know

  • The lawsuit claims that the Department of Youth Services passed over her in part because of her sex and sexual orientation
  • Justices have to decide whether the standards applied to a member of the majority community should be the same or different than standards applied to a member of a minority with a similar claim
  • Title VII of the Civil Rights Act doesn’t address sexual orientation or gender identity which presents a challenge  

Mark Caleb Smith, professor of political science at Cedarville University, said the woman who filed the lawsuit is heterosexual.

She claims her supervisor, who is a homosexual, “Limited her promotion opportunities and then promoted other people in her place that were homosexuals.”

Smith went on to say that the justices have indicated that the woman must provide different kinds of information since she’s a member of the majority community. He believes this will make it harder for her to prove her claim, compared to someone who would have filed a claim that was a part of a minority group. 

One challenge to the case is that current federal law isn’t fully clear on an issue like this.

“Title VII of the Civil Rights Act includes language about sex. It does not include overt language about sexual orientation or gender identity or those sorts of things," Smith said.

He said there’s a lot of controversy in culture right now as to whether or not that should be amended to be more inclusive in terms of language. Smith doesn’t expect that issue to be solved. Rather, it’s something that will continue to be an issue going forward especially when it comes to politics.