My last law blog talked about Judge O'Malley's 2001 decision in Doe v. United Financial Consumer Services. To date, several courts have followed Judge O?Malley?s logic, including one Circuit Court of Appeals, the 6th Circuit, as well as seven federal district courts in Arizona, District of Columbia, New York, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, and Washington.
It is important to note that Judge O'Malley's opinion, being the first of a whole new line of Title VII cases based on Price Waterhouse, was, despite its trailblazing nature, actually quite limited. It does not say that employees fired because they are transgender are protected by Title VII. Rather, the opinion explicitly noted that the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals opinion in Ulane v. Eastern Airlines, which had rejected Title VII protection for transgender employees and had dominated the legal landscape for more than twenty years, might still be "good law." J
