What You Need to Know

• Catholic Relief Services requested that the district court certify to the Maryland Supreme Court the question as to whether the state's Equal Pay for Equal Work Act prohibits discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.
• The district court already determined that it will certify a similar question to the state high court as to whether certain religious entities may discriminate because of sexual orientation under the Maryland Fair Employment Practices Act.
• The district court recognized that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in 'Bostock v. Clayton County' will have an impact interpreting both statutes.

Maryland may be one of the first states to consider how the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 ruling in an LGBTQ+ rights case, Bostock v. Clayton County, plays a broader role in interpreting two state anti-discrimination statutes, with a potential opinion coming as early as September.

In the present case, a gay plaintiff identified as “John Doe” sued his employer, Catholic Relief Services, a social services agency constituted by the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in a workplace discrimination case. Doe, a data analyst, alleges that CRS abruptly terminated his legal spouse’s health benefits after more than a year of coverage when the organization discovered the couple’s homosexual marriage—despite Doe’s disclosures about his relationship.

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