An attorney defending Clayton County, Georgia, in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a gay employee asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to let stand an appellate ruling that federal laws do not prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation.

Freeman Mathis & Gary attorneys Jack Hancock and William Buechner Jr. defended the May 10 ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit in Atlanta in their response to a petition for a writ of certiorari filed by Gerald Lynn Bostock on May 25.