Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/19pdf/17-1618_hfci.pdf
Page Number: 77.0

40 

BOSTOCK v. CLAYTON COUNTY 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

is no dispute that discrimination against an individual em-
ployee based on that person’s sex cannot be justified on the 
ground  that  the  employer’s  treatment  of  the  average  em-
ployee of that sex is at least as favorable as its treatment of 
the average employee of the opposite sex.  Nor does it mat-
ter  if  an  employer  discriminates  against  only  a  subset  of
men or women, where the same subset of the opposite sex 
is treated differently, as in Phillips.  That is not the issue 
here.  An employer who discriminates equally on the basis 
of  sexual  orientation  or  gender  identity  applies  the  same 
criterion to every affected individual regardless of sex.  See 
Part I–A, supra. 

III 
A 

Because the opinion of the Court flies a textualist flag, I 
have taken pains to show that it cannot be defended on tex-
tualist  grounds.  But  even  if  the  Court’s  textualist  argu-
ment  were  stronger,  that  would  not  explain  today’s  deci-
sion.  Many Justices of this Court, both past and present, 
have not espoused or practiced a method of statutory inter-
pretation  that  is  limited  to  the  analysis  of  statutory  text.
Instead, when there is ambiguity in the terms of a statute,
they have found it appropriate to look to other evidence of 
“congressional intent,” including legislative history.

So, why in these cases are congressional intent and the 
legislative history of Title VII totally ignored?  Any assess-
ment of congressional intent or legislative history seriously 
undermines the Court’s interpretation. 

B 
As the Court explained in General Elec. Co. v. Gilbert, 429 
U. S.  125,  143  (1976),  the  legislative  history  of  Title  VII’s
prohibition of sex discrimination is brief, but it is neverthe-
less  revealing.    The  prohibition  of  sex  discrimination  was
“added  to  Title  VII  at  the  last  minute  on  the  floor  of  the