Press Releases

Brief Filed in Support of Teacher at a North Carolina Catholic High School Terminated After Announcing Plans to Marry his Same-Sex Partner

(Hartford, CT) -- Attorney General William Tong today joined a coalition of`18 attorneys general in filing a brief in support of a substitute teacher at a North Carolina Catholic high school who was terminated after announcing plans to marry his same-sex partner, arguing that the First Amendment does not give an employer the right to illegally discriminate against an employee because of their sex.

“Employees have a right to work free from discrimination, including the right to marry whom they love. The First Amendment is not a license for employers to discriminate. The North Carolina district court got this one right, and the defendants’ extreme and expansive theories here must be rejected,” said Attorney General Tong.

The brief, filed Wednesday with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit in Billard v. Charlotte Catholic High School et al., specifically argues that the First Amendment’s protection for freedom of expressive association does not apply to the employer-employee relationship at issue in the case, and therefore does not afford the school the right to fire the teacher in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The brief supports a ruling by the North Carolina federal district court in favor of the teacher’s arguments that the school violated Title VII by discriminating on the basis of sex.

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