Civil Rights: R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer … to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

Title Vii, Civil Rights Act of 1964

This semester, my students will be diving into the R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission case for their final exam. Because this is a newer civil rights topic, I took great care in writing the final exam and also invited feedback from my students because I value their insights and understand that they have different life experiences than I do. It’s very important for me to have a final exam that encapsulates what we have learned as well as be relevant to my students. I’ve also taken feedback from former students to redesign how I do this to make the entire experience memorable.

We plan to do this case the last week of school, but it was important for me to share prior to in case another teacher was interested! This is all using information I got from my summer at Street Law with some of my personal research.

I teach the civil rights/civil liberties unit last in my classroom. This year, we are ending with civil rights and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 as the perfect transition into this case. Looking at rights of other groups who have been discriminated against is a good foundation for the legal arguments brought up in this case. I also did a lot of research on my own and found sources for my students to guide them. This is a very controversial topic, and it’s important to stay the legal arguments here.

2019 Fall Case

R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes Inc. v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission 

Constitutional Question: Does Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibit discrimination against transgender employees based on (1) their status as transgender or (2) sex stereotyping under Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, 490 U.S. 228 (1989)?

Required Resources: (Oral Arguments are available via the link above)

You are not limited to these resources, but always cite your sources as you use them! If you find more resources, please let me know so I can share them or tweet them out using #apschley20 to share. SCOTUSBlog has a lot of resources including the amicus briefs submitted for both parties.

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