Court Rules Against Hobby Lobby in Trans Woman's Restroom Suit; Case Could Have Major Impact
An appellate court ruled against crafts store chain Hobby Lobby in a lawsuit brought by a transgender employee who was denied access to the women's restroom at the Aurora, Illinois, location where she works. The ruling "could have nationwide implications," NBC News reports.
"Meggan Sommerville," NBC News recounted, "...has been denied access to the store's women's room since transitioning at work in 2010. As a result, she has had anxiety and recurring nightmares and has been forced to limit her fluid intake, according to filings."
Sommerville, who had worked at the store for a decade before her 2010 transition, was forced "to punch out of work and cross a parking lot in the rain or snow to access the bathroom at a fast-food restaurant," the Chicago Tribune reported, or else use the store's men's room in violation of her deeply held sense of herself.
Allowing herself to become dehydrated led to "muscle cramps and headaches, according to court documents," the Tribune added.
In its Aug. 13 ruling, "the Illinois 2nd District Appellate Court upheld a lower court decision that determined the crafts chain violated the Illinois Human Rights Act both as an employer and as a place of public accommodation," NBC News noted.
The court's ruling stated plainly that "Sommerville is female, just like the women who are permitted to use the women's bathroom."
The ruling was hailed by advocates as a "sweeping" victory that could have ramifications in efforts to fight back against a multi-state wave of anti-trans legislation, news sources said.
"This is not limited to employment," Camilla Taylor of Lambda Legal told NBC News. "This is the public policy of the state of Illinois. The court went out of its way to knock down every justification for treating trans people differently in public. It made it clear there's no justification."
Taylor opined that the ruling could set precedent in an array of challenges to hostile laws. "Not only could the ruling be used by opponents of so-called bathroom bills," NBC News summarized, "it could be relevant to the legal fight against legislation prohibiting transgender girls from playing on female sports teams."
"It's indicative of applying nondiscrimination principles to sex-segregated areas," Taylor said. "It makes clear that gender identity determines sex."
Sommerville told the Tribune that on Aug. 17, several days after the court's ruling, "she was called into a manager's office and told that from now on, she can use the women's restroom. She kept her composure during the exchange she said, but when she left the office, she cried."
" I think I was more emotional hearing that than I was Friday," Sommerville told the Tribune.
Hobby Lobby made headlines in 2014 when the Supreme Court ruled in its favor in a case pitting the religious convictions of the chain's owners against terms of the Affordable Care Act, which mandated employers' coverage of birth control. The family regarded certain types of birth control as tantamount to abortion, Wikipedia recalls.
More recently, in 2018, Hobby Lobby surrendered thousands of antiquities that were reportedly looted from one or more ancient sites in Iraq, and was fined $3 million. The chain had reportedly paid $1.6 million for the relics.