Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch, left, and Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., right, walk down the steps of the U.S. Supreme Court after holding an Investiture ceremony for Justice Gorsuch, on June 15, 2017. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi/ALM

Updated at 11:33 a.m.

The U.S. Supreme Court in a divided decision Monday said federal workplace laws prohibit employers from firing gay, lesbian and transgender workers.

The justices split 6-3, with Justice Neil Gorsuch writing the majority opinion. He was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts Jr., and the court's liberal wing. Justices Brett Kavanaugh and Samuel Alito Jr. wrote separate dissents. Justice Clarence Thomas joined Alito's dissent.

"Those who adopted the Civil Rights Act might not have anticipated their work would lead to this particular result. Likely, they weren't thinking about many of the Act's consequences that have become apparent over the years, including its prohibition against discrimination on the basis of motherhood or its ban on the sexual harassment of male employees," Gorsuch wrote in his 43-page opinion. "But the limits of the drafters' imagination supply no reason to ignore the law's demands. When the express terms of a statute give us one answer and extratextual considerations suggest another, it's no contest. Only the written word is the law, and all persons are entitled to its benefit."

At oral argument, Gorsuch was seen as possibly leaning toward a ruling for broad protections for LGBT workers based on the text of the law. But he also expressed concern about the possible social impact of providing Title VII coverage.

Alito stated in his 54-page dissent: "There is only one word for what the court has done today: legislation. The document that the Court releases is in the form of a judicial opinion interpreting a statute, but that is deceptive."

Alito noted that numerous bills have been introduced over the past 45 years that would specifically add "sexual orientation" and "gender identity" to protections under Title VII. "But to date, none has passed both Houses," he wrote.

Kavanaugh, in his separate dissent, wrote that the policy arguments for applying Title VII coverage were "weighty," but, he added, "we are judges, not Members of Congress. Our role is not to make or amend the law. As written, Title VII does not prohibit employment discrimination because of sexual orientation." That analysis applies as well to whether Title VII covers gender identity discrimination, he wrote.

The court's decision came in three cases which focused closely on the text of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars discrimination by employers "because of … sex." Two cases— Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia, and Altitude Express v. Zarda—raised the question of sexual orientation under Title VII. R.G. and G.R. Harris Funeral Homes v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Stephens centered on gender identity.

During arguments in October in Bostock and Zarda, Stanford Law's Pamela Karlan, representing gay and lesbian employees, told the justices: "When an employer fires a male employee for dating men but does not fire female employees who date men, he violates Title VII. The employer has, in the words of Section 703(a), discriminated against the man because he treats that man worse than women who want to do the same thing. And that discrimination is because of sex because the adverse employment action is based on the male employee's failure to conform to a particular expectation about how men should behave."

But Alito noted that Congress has repeatedly declined to act on requests to address the sexual-orientation issue. "And if the court takes this up and interprets this 1964 statute to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation, we will be acting exactly like a legislature," he said.

Karlan's opponents, Jeffrey Harris of the boutique firm Consovoy Park and U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco, argued that the sexual orientation and gender identity issues should be decided by Congress, not the high court. The EEOC, which has pushed for a broad reading of Title VII, did not join the Justice Department's brief in the Supreme Court.

At the hearing, Justice Sonia Sotomayor countered that the original Congress used very clear words about what the statute meant. "And regardless of what others may have thought over time, it's very clear that what's happening fits those words. At what point do we say we have to step in?"

James Esseks, director of the ACLU's LGBTQ & HIV Project, said in a statement about Monday's ruling: "This is a huge victory for LGBTQ equality. Over 50 years ago, Black and Brown trans women, drag queens, and butch lesbians fought back against police brutality and discrimination that too many LGBTQ people still face. The Supreme Court's clarification that it's unlawful to fire people because they're LGBTQ is the result of decades of advocates fighting for our rights. The court has caught up to the majority of our country, which already knows that discriminating against LGBTQ people is both unfair and against the law."

John Bursch, vice president of appellate advocacy at Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a statement:  "Americans must be able to rely on what the law says, and it is disappointing that a majority of the justices were unwilling to affirm that commonsense principle. Redefining 'sex' to mean 'gender identity' will create chaos and enormous unfairness for women and girls in athletics, women's shelters, and many other contexts. Civil rights laws that use the word 'sex' were put in place to protect equal opportunities for women. Allowing a court or government bureaucrats to redefine a term with such a clear and important meaning undermines those very opportunities—the ones the law was designed to protect."

Read today's ruling below:

This post was updated with comment about the decision.