I had reached my "3 a day" limit so my response to Karleen was bounced
yesterday.  Here it is:

US courts held that pregnancy discrimination was NOT sex discrimination
("pregnant persons" and women not being the same, they wrote).  This led
(thirty years ago) to the passage of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, which
amended the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (basically Congress saying to the
Supreme Court "read my lips") to prohibit discrimination on the basis of
"pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions." Then federal courts
faced with breastfeeding discrimination cases held that breastfeeding was
NOT a condition related to pregnancy.  The Breastfeeding Promotion Act
(trapped in committee, perhaps terminally) would amend the Civil Rights Act
yet again to include lactation as a protected status, though only in employment.

US courts have made extraordinary efforts to find that specific cases are
not covered by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The introduction to the recent
Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (another instance of the U.S. Congress smacking
the U.S. Supreme Court) is very satisfying to read since in it Congress
pretty explicitly condemns the Supreme Court for working so hard at not
"getting" what sex discrimination is.

Yours,
Jake Marcus

On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 14:17:23 -0800, Margo <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

><<Do the courts in the US consider  discrimination on the basis of
pregnancy to be sex discrimination?>>
>
>My understanding is that no, pregnancy is not considered "sex
discrimination" - apparently being pregnant is not the same as being a
woman!  (I learned this just today from Jake Marcus (JD here in the USA) on
another list so hopefully she'll see this and give a more articulate response.)
>
>Margo
>
>

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