16 states have asked the Supreme Court to limit LGBT rights at work. Which 16, you ask?

By the time you read this, I should be blissfully cruising in the Atlantic outside the range of any cell towers. However, between now (Saturday afternoon) and Monday, I am feverishly punching out 5 blog posts to hold you over until after Labor Day.

Will I sacrifice quality for quantity? Since you’re not paying me anything to blog, you bet I will. Hopefully, you won’t see it that way. But, if feel otherwise, go jump in a lake I’m sorry.

So, where was I? Oh yes, on Friday, Chris Opfer at Bloomberg Law scooped that “a group of 16 states urged the U.S. Supreme Court Aug. 23 to rule that companies can fire workers based on their sexual orientation and gender identity without violating federal workplace discrimination law.”

Here’s the brief filed in EEOC v. R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes, a case in which the Supreme Court may decide the issue of whether Title VII covers transgender employees.

The sixteen states are:

1. Alabama,
2. Arkansas,
3. California, Kansas,
4. Kentucky, which is technically a Commonwealth,
5. Louisiana,
6. Maine,
7. Mississippi,
8. Nebraska,
9. Oklahoma,
10. South Carolina,
11. South Dakota,
12. Tennessee,
13. Texas,
14. Utah,
15. West Virginia, and
16. Wyoming.

Their argument is one we’ve seen many times before; namely, that Title VII prohibits discrimination based on “sex,” while there is nothing explicit in the statute about LGBT rights.

I’ll keep you updated as to whether the Supreme Court will opt to hear the case.

In the meantime, you know what to do. Don’t discriminate against LGBT individuals.