PETE WILLIAMS, MSNBC Supreme Court Correspondent: No longer is Anthony Kennedy among the justices. The man who wrote all the gay rights decisions before. But today the Supreme Court has ruled Title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which makes it illegal for employers to fire employees on the basis of sex, also covers sexual orientation. The Trump administration sided against this ruling, saying when Congress passed it in 1964, nobody was thinking about sexual orientation. It was simply against men or women. Today the Supreme Court says, no, that's not the case, sexual orientation is part of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. This is a victory for a man who was fired for being on a gay softball team. He sued and was told it's not covered. Today the Supreme Court said it's wrong. It's an issue that divided the lower courts.

On the same day, this case was argued the Supreme Court heard a separate case whether it's also illegal under the same civil rights law to fire someone for transgender status. We don't have that decision. The Supreme Court, as you know in this time of the pandemic, is not actually in the courtroom. All of this is happening virtually, and frankly, all we have so far in the decision is the very first page, but I'm told now it's starting to line up. The vote is 6-3 with Neil Gorsuch, one of the Trump appointees joining Chief Roberts and four more liberal members to form a 6-3 majority.

This is a huge thing. Gay rights groups consider this even more important than the fight for marriage equality because while not every gay person in America gets married, most gay adults want or need a job, and as of just a few minutes ago, it was possible to get married on Sunday and legally fired on Monday, but no more.