A new U.S. Supreme Court term has started with just three U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit decisions on the court’s docket. Gone are the days when the Sixth Circuit challenged the Ninth as the most reversed federal appellate court. Last term, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in seven Sixth Circuit cases and reversed the Sixth Circuit just three times, a very respectable 57% affirmance rate—never mind the Sixth Circuit was affirmed just once in the preceding two terms.
Of the troika of Sixth Circuit cases before the high court this term, the most widely known is R.G. & G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. There, the Sixth Circuit held that discrimination based on transgender status is necessarily discrimination motivated by sex in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
