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The Equal Employment<\/span> Opportunity Commission, the federal agency tasked with protecting workers from illegal discrimination, inked an unprecedented settlement with a conservative Christian employer association that could have long-term, wide-ranging consequences.<\/p>\n The lawsuit that led to the settlement was in reaction to EEOC guidance issued under the Biden administration and after a 2020 Supreme Court ruling<\/a> that Title VII protects against gender identity discrimination.<\/p>\n In the settlement, reached<\/a> on August 18, the EEOC pledged to not pursue any claims of gender identity-based discrimination against the Christian Employers Alliance \u2014 and made the pledge in perpetuity.<\/p>\n The EEOC provides free investigation into complaints of discrimination and, in some cases, will bring lawsuits on behalf of employees at no cost to the plaintiffs.<\/p>\n Now, however, anyone who works for a company with membership in the Christian Employers Alliance who believes they suffered gender identity-based discrimination won\u2019t be able to avail themselves of the EEOC\u2019s process.<\/p>\n The settlement also contains an unusual provision: It applies not just to the more than 20,000<\/a> employers that are already members in the Christian Employers Alliance, but also to any future members, so long as they are members at the time that any claimed discrimination occurred.<\/p>\n That means that any employer that decides to sign up for Christian Employers Alliance membership will get the benefit of blanket protection from the EEOC against all claims of gender identity discrimination, such as harassing someone for being nonbinary or firing them for coming out as trans.<\/p>\n \u201cI am not aware of any settlement that just creates in perpetuity a freedom from investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n \u201cI am not aware of any settlement that just creates in perpetuity a freedom from investigation,\u201d said Karla Gilbride, a former EEOC general counsel under President Joe Biden who is now at the American Civil Liberties Union. \u201cI\u2019ve never seen an organization get a settlement that allows protection to future members in this way.\u201d<\/p>\n The settlement will stay in place even if Andrea Lucas, the current Republican chair of the EEOC, is replaced with a Democratic chair under a future Democratic president. (The Christian Employers Alliance declined to comment, and the EEOC did not respond to an inquiry.)<\/p>\n The CEA notes the blanket protection on its webpage for signing up new members<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cJoin CEA and stop being exposed,\u201d the site says, under a banner that reads \u201cProtected the Moment You\u2019re In.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re selling an insurance policy against EEOC investigations,\u201d said Gilbride. \u201cI\u2019m concerned about the incentive that that creates for employers, especially when the organization is explicitly marketing itself in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n The settlement also has no expiration date. Nearly all settlements, Gilbride said, have an end point; they will remain in force for a certain number of years, during which a court will monitor to make sure the terms are met.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat makes this settlement unusual,\u201d she said, \u201cis that, in exchange for agreeing to dismiss certain claims in this case, the EEOC is committing to these terms for what seems to be an indefinite amount of time.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like they\u2019re selling an insurance policy against EEOC investigations.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n The settlement is of a piece with the EEOC\u2019s recent turn toward policies aligned with the aims of the Christian right in the United States. Lucas, the commission chair, has already pursued a broad agenda of eliminating trans rights.<\/p>\n The Christian Employers Alliance has been at the forefront of pushing conservative religious views into policy. The alliance was represented in its EEOC lawsuit by Alliance Defending Freedom<\/a>, the conservative legal group<\/a> behind the overthrow of Roe v. Wade<\/a>. <\/p>\n The Christian employers\u2019 group also boasted in its promotional materials for new members that, like the protection from gender discrimination complaints, a court injunction it secured against the government that allows members to refuse to cover contraception will \u201ccover you the moment you join.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The blanket carveout for members of the Christian Employers Alliance is also out of the ordinary for giving across-the-board protections from complaints. The EEOC already has ways to consider the rights of religious employers, but they require going through established processes. These employers, for instance, can raise a religious defense against a complaint of discrimination, and the agency will then consider it.<\/p>\n The new settlement, however, blocks EEOC investigators from even looking into a complaint of discrimination and evaluating the merits; instead, it stops all gender identity discrimination complaints against these employers dead in their tracks. All the agency can do is tell workers to sue their employers on their own in the courts.<\/p>\n \u201cThat categorical exclusion from investigation based on being a member of a group is unprecedented,\u201d Gilbride said.<\/p>\n These victories for the Christian Employers Alliance closely mirror much of what the organization had originally sought when it filed<\/a> for an injunction as part of its lawsuit. In its request, the group sought a permanent ban on the EEOC enforcing gender identity rights against its \u201cpresent and future members.\u201d<\/p>\n And there are close relationships between the Christian Employers Alliance and the EEOC.<\/p>\n\n
In Perpetuity<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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Blanket Carveout<\/strong><\/h2>\n