Attorney General Steve Marshall announced on Monday that his office is leading an amicus brief with the 11th Circuit Court, asking to reverse a previous decision that would require employers offering healthcare coverage to their employees to pay for transgender operations.
The brief challenges the court's interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin.
The case comes from Anna Lang, a Houston County, Ga sheriff's deputy. Lang sought a sex-change operation to transition from male to female. When told that the employer's insurance provider would not cover the operation, Lang sued under Title VII.
A district court ruled in Lang's favor, and a divided three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit found that the employer could be liable for violating Title VII by not paying for the operation. Alabama and other states asked for a full review by all 12 judges in the 11th Circuit, which was granted. The courts will hear oral arguments in February 2025.
"The question for the Eleventh Circuit is whether an employer's health insurance plan must pay for a male employee's sex-change surgery simply because the plan pays for a mother to receive reconstructive surgery following childbirth," Marshall said. "To state the obvious: the two treatments are not the same, and it is not unlawful discrimination to treat the two procedures differently. The states within the Eleventh Circuit—Alabama, Florida, and Georgia—are steadfast in our opposition to the district court's rewrite of Title VII, which would have negative consequences for employers by imposing greater liability and reduced clarity on how far the law extends. We are confident that the full court will agree and overturn this irrational decision."
In the brief, the petitioners argue that the 11th Circuit's "rewrite of Title VII will produce wide-ranging consequences for employers throughout the Circuit who now face both greater liability and diminished clarity over how far the law extends."
"[I]t is not discrimination to treat differently situated people or medical treatments differently," the brief reads. "That explains why Title VII does not require employers to cover abortions, for instance, even though '[women] [would be] the only plan participants who qualify for [abortion].' Nor does it command that employers cover erectile dysfunction drugs, even though only men would qualify. Likewise, Congress did not (sixty years ago) mandate that all employer health plans cover penile inversion surgeries."
Alabama led the brief with Florida and Georgia, the other two states in the 11th Circuit whose employers would be directly covered by the appellate court's decision.
To connect with the author of this story or to comment, email craig.monger@1819news.com.
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