From the ACLU, this is at Liberty.

I'm Emerson Sykes, a staff attorney here at the ACLU and your host.

Another Supreme Court session is upon us, with the court set to reconvene following its summer recess on October 7th.

On the docket for the new session are cases that have important implications for LGBT rights, criminal justice, and immigration, among other issues.

And the ACLU is set to argue one of the biggest cases of the term. With us today,

to preview the coming year at the Supreme Court is David Cole, the legal director of the ACLU and an experienced

Supreme Court litigator. Thanks very much for joining us, David. Welcome back to the podcast.

Great to be here. David, let's start with what many observers think is the big blockbuster of the term,

Harris Funeral Homes versus Amy Stevens, deciding whether LGBTQ employees are protected under federal sex discrimination laws.

It's an ACLU case, and it'll be one of the first cases argued.

It has huge implications, not only for LGBTQ people, but for all of us.

We'll devote next week's entire episode to this case, but can you

start off by telling us briefly what the case is about? Sure. There's actually three cases

that the court is going to hear all together on the same day on October 8th. Two of them involve

whether discriminating against an employee because he or she is gay or lesbian is a form of sex discrimination under Title VII.

And the Stevens case is about whether discriminating against an individual because she is transgender is sex discrimination under Title VII.

What Title VII prohibits is discrimination in employment because of race, sex, religion, and national origin.

It was passed in 1964, and obviously in 1964, Congress members were not thinking about how it might apply to LGBTQ people.

But the argument that we have made and that a number of lower courts have accepted is that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and discrimination on the basis of transgender status are essentially subsets of sex discrimination.

They treat people differently because of their sex.

And how do you expect this to play out at the court?

So I think it's tough to predict this one because we have won this argument before some very

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