On Monday, The Supreme Court in a 6-3 decision, expanding Title VII of The Civil Rights Act of 1964 to apply to sexual orientation and gender identity. Justice Neil Gorsuch was the one responsible for writing the opinion supporting the ruling. From the ruling itself, it is unclear what exactly and who exactly it applies to, and should be concerning to everyone. This comes after several attempts by Congress to expand title VII and now once again, democrats look to the Supreme Court for help. The most shocking part is that Justice Gorsuch was the main decision maker in this, which indicates that picking him wasn’t the best move for Trump. The fact that the Supreme Court once again is being used to push policy is very troubling and Justices like Brett Kavanagh and Clarence Thomas agree with that notion.

What is unclear is who exactly is this applied and how exactly is it applied. The ruling itself is absurd, because when title VII was written, it was not meant to cover things like sexual orientation and gender identity. Beyond that, we have some shaky ground on exactly will this be enforced. What concerns me is that this may start applying to churches, religious schools and other faith based organizations that hire people with a particular set of values. Does title VII now suggest that these places must be forced to hire gay people or trans people? That is unclear, and I hope that is not the case. What is also unclear is what constitutes as discrimination. In places like Great Britain, saying things like a man is man and a woman is a woman is considered hate speech. So, is it now the case that if I run a business and hired a trans person and they overheard me say a man is a man and a woman is a woman, could I be sued for discrimination? It wouldn’t surprise me, but this is why they need to make this clear, and it honestly shouldn’t have been their decision in the first place.

The Supreme Court in this country is way too powerful and too many people relied on it, including myself. For a while, I hoped with two conservative Justices, Roe v Wade could be overturned. After this decision, it is clear that we cannot rely on the Supreme Court nor should we. The Supreme Court is not a policy maker and their power must be dampened down soon.