Equality at work

Amuchneeded glimmer of consensus and progress came from an unexpected place Monday. The Supreme Court, the focus of some of Washington’s ugliest partisan brawls in recent years, at long last outlawed workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity nationwide — and did so with an opinion written by a hardline conservative.

Neil Gorsuch — who doubles as the Republican establishment’s favorite answer to the vexing question “What has President Trump accomplished?” — wrote for the majority that gay and transgender Americans are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, nationality, religion or sex. While the last has been construed narrowly as requiring equal treatment of men and women, the court’s 63 decision, also joined by conservative Chief Justice John Roberts, interprets it more broadly and reasonably, noting that “Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role” in bias based on orientation or identity.

In another victory for tolerance Monday, the court also declined to hear the Trump administration’s challenge to California’s sanctuary law, which prevents the federal government from using local law enforcement officers to carry out its cruel and unnecessary immigration crackdown.

While California and other states have prohibited workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity, Americans could be legally fired for being gay or transgender in a majority of states until Monday. Indeed, the three cases before the court were brought by people who lost their jobs for those very reasons.

Tellingly, a dissent penned by Justice Samuel Alito notes that the majority’s interpretation would have been surprising to almost any American “surveyed in 1964.” Alito’s point is that the lawmakers who wrote the Civil Rights Act didn’t intend Monday’s outcome, but his argument leaves the inescapable impression that he and two of his fellow justices are clinging to halfcenturyold ideas of what is just.

Both of Monday’s rulings went against the Trump administration, and they stand as a hopeful rebuke to the president’s relentless efforts to widen every rift between us.