The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit has vacated Hively v. Ivy Tech Community College, which found that Title VII did not protect against sexual orientation discrimination. I wrote about the decision, issued by a three-judge panel of the Seventh Circuit, in August. The court will rehear the case with all of the judges participating.

Here is a copy of the order.

Ms. Hively's request for rehearing was supported by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and U.S. Senators Jeffrey Merkley (D-Or.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), and Cory Booker (D-NJ), and U.S. Representatives David Cicilline (D-RI) and Mark Takano (D-Calif.). The Congresspersons are co-sponsors of the Equality Act, proposed legislation that would provide federal protection against discrimination to LGBT individuals.

The other big sexual orientation/Title VII case -- Christiansen v. Omnicom Group, Inc. -- is still pending at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, but the plaintiff filed his reply brief this week, so it may not be too long before we get a decision.

Things are heating up!

Image Credit: From flickr, Creative Commons license, by State Farm Insurance.