Vox Sentences - A landmark LGBTQ ruling

The Supreme Court rules on LGBTQ protections; Beijing deals with a new coronavirus outbreak.

Tonight's Sentences was written by Cameron Peters.

• On Monday, the Supreme Court issued a major civil rights decision, ruling 6-3 that LGBTQ individuals are protected by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. [NYT / Adam Liptak]
• The act prohibits workplace discrimination on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin,” and Monday’s ruling affirms that those protections extend to an employee’s sexual orientation or gender identity. [Vox / Ian Millhiser]
• The decision is a big deal: As Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern tweeted, it is “by a mile, the biggest legal victory transgender Americans have won in the history of the nation.” [Twitter / Mark Joseph Stern]
• Justice Neil Gorsuch, a conservative Trump appointee, joined the liberal wing of the Court along with Chief Justice John Roberts, leaving justices Kavanaugh, Alito, and Thomas in the minority. Gorsuch also wrote the decision. [Politico / Josh Gerstein and Rebecca Rainey]
• The Court combined three cases in Monday’s Bostock v. Clayton County decision. In addition to Bostock, the ruling also addresses Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda and R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC. [Daily Beast / Jay Michaelson]
• Aimee Stephens, the plaintiff in Harris Funeral Homes, sued her former employer after she was fired in 2013 for telling her boss that she planned to transition to female. Stephens died last month of kidney failure, but her case, the first major trans rights case to be heard before the Supreme Court, will impact the lives of millions of trans people in the US. [Vox / Katelyn Burns]
• In addition to issuing a decision in Bostock v. Clayton County, the Court turned down several potential cases on Monday. Justices decided against accepting 10 different cases relating to the Second Amendment. [CNN / Jamie Ehrlich]
• They also rebuffed Trump’s Justice Department, which had requested that the Court consider its appeal regarding a sanctuary law in California. Previously, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the law, which prohibits local law enforcement from informing federal agents when immigrants are set to be released from prison. [NBC News / Pete Williams]

• Beijing is experiencing a surge in new coronavirus infections: Since late last week, 79 new cases have been reported, and the city is back under partial lockdown as it seeks to contain the outbreak. [NPR / Emily Feng and Amy Cheng]
• The cases are believed to have originated in a Beijing market, which was shut down over the weekend, and represent Beijing’s first locally transmitted infections in almost two months. [CNN / Nectar Gan]
• The government has responded to the outbreak with widespread testing. According to officials there, Beijing hopes to test 200,000 people on Monday alone, and anyone who has visited the market since May 30 has been instructed to self-quarantine. [Washington Post / Anna Fifield]
• While it’s still unclear how the outbreak began, government scientists have indicated that the virus may have come from overseas before spreading in the massive Xinfadi food market. [Vox / Zeeshan Aleem]
• In any case, the outbreak has Chinese officials worried. “The market is densely packed with many moving around,” one said on Sunday, “and the risks are high that the outbreak will spread.” [NYT / Chris Buckley]

[Vox  / Zeeshan Aleem and Sean Collins]

• The FDA is ending an emergency use authorization for the antimalarial drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine, which President Donald Trump has touted as a treatment for the coronavirus; the agency said it is no longer "reasonable to believe that the known and potential benefits of these products outweigh their known and potential risks." [CNN / Jacqueline Howard and Arman Azad]
• How nationwide protests and the coronavirus pandemic are exposing a class divide in US newsrooms. [NYT / Ben Smith]
• What Monday's Supreme Court ruling means for the trans community. [Vox / Katelyn Burns]
• "Say their names": The New Yorker's June 22 cover documents the history of anti-black violence in the United States. [New Yorker]
• Poland may have accidentally invaded the Czech Republic last month, but neither country is too worried about it. [NPR / Colin Dwyer]

[Jon Stewart on the response to the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis last month / NYT]

The Supreme Court has decided the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applies to discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. [Spotify / Sean Rameswaram and Ian Millhiser]