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Page Number: 59

22 

BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

Random  House  Dictionary  1307  (“coitus,”  “sexual  inter-
course” (defs. 5–6)); American Heritage Dictionary, at 1187
(“sexual intercourse” (def. 5)).19 

Aside from these, what is there?  One definition, “to neck 
passionately,” Random House Dictionary 1307 (def. 8), re-
fers to sexual conduct that is not necessarily heterosexual.
But can it be seriously argued that one of the aims of Title 
VII  is  to  outlaw  employment  discrimination  against  em-
ployees, whether heterosexual or homosexual, who engage 
in necking?  And even if Title VII had that effect, that is not 
what is at issue in cases like those before us. 

That  brings  us  to  the  two  remaining  subsidiary  defini-
tions, both of which refer to sexual urges or instincts and 
their manifestations.  See the fourth definition in the Amer-
ican Heritage Dictionary, at 1187  (“the sexual urge or in-
stinct as it manifests itself in behavior”), and the fourth def-
inition in both Webster’s Second and Third (“[p]henomena 
of  sexual  instincts  and  their  manifestations,”  Webster’s 
New  International  Dictionary,  at  2296  (2d  ed.);  Webster’s 
Third  New  International  Dictionary  2081  (1966)).    Since 
both of these come after three prior definitions that refer to
men and women, they are most naturally read to have the 
same association, and in any event, is it plausible that Title
VII  prohibits  discrimination  based  on  any  sexual  urge  or 
instinct and its manifestations?  The urge to rape?

Viewing all these definitions, the overwhelming impact is 
that discrimination because of “sex” was understood during 
the  era  when  Title  VII  was  enacted  to  refer  to  men  and 
women.  (The same is true of current definitions, which are
reproduced in Appendix B, infra.)  This no doubt explains
why  neither  this  Court  nor  any  of  the  lower  courts  have 
tried to make much of the dictionary definitions of sex just 
—————— 

19 See American Heritage Dictionary 1188 (1969) (defining “sexual in-
tercourse”); Webster’s Third New International Dictionary 2082 (1966)
(same); Random House Dictionary of the English Language 1308 (1966)
(same).