April Website Update: Seventh Circuit Holds Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation is Covered by Title VII
There are now two camps when it comes to whether Title VII prohibits discrimination based solely on sexual orientation. In one camp, the EEOC and, most recently, the Seventh Circuit say discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation is sex discrimination for Title VII purposes. The other camp, including the Sixth Circuit, in which Tennessee resides, and the Fourth Circuit, in which Virginia resides, says it is not. In December 2016, the Sixth Circuit held in Clemons v. City of Memphis that Title VII did not prohibit claims based solely on sexual orientation. However, the Sixth Circuit’s decision in Vickers v.
Defense Victory
DRI member Steven C. Huret of Wilson Worley PC in Kingsport, successfully defended an appeal of the trial court’s grant of summary judgment to the defendant. The defendant was the brother of deceased federal postal worker and named as the sole beneficiary on the decedent’s life insurance policy. The decedent’s two children filed a lawsuit to enforce their status as third-party beneficiaries under a Tennessee divorce decree that required the life insurance policy name them as beneficiaries. The defense filed a motion for summary judgment on the basis that the life insurance policy was governed under the Federal Employees’ Group