The Fourth Circuit will consider several questions that sit at the intersection of religious and LGBTQ+ rights when it hears Liberty University's challenge Tuesday to a ruling that allowed a transgender former employee to pursue a sex discrimination suit against the Christian school. 

Liberty will argue its interlocutory appeal before a three-judge panel, looking to upend a February 2025 order by U.S. District Judge Norman K. Moon that rejected the university's motion to dismiss former information technology employee Ellenor Zinski's Title VII lawsuit alleging she was unlawfully fired because she transitioned.

Zinski sued the university in July 2024. She said she began working for Liberty in February 2023 under her former legal name, and in July 2023, she alerted human resources that she was transitioning and intended to change her legal name. About a month later, Zinski alleged she was unlawfully fired.

The appeal gives the Fourth Circuit an opportunity to delve into a series of thorny issues involving the interplay between religious rights and antidiscrimination law, including several that the trial court noted had yet to be addressed by the appeals court when it greenlighted the case for interlocutory review.

"The case is not only one of first impression in the Fourth Circuit but also raises legal issues on the tension between a religious organization's right to make employment decisions based on religion and protecting the rights of LGBTQ+ workers," said Gerald Maatman, a partner at Duane Morris LLP. "The stakes and issues are made manifest by the volume of amicus briefing submitted on both sides of the issue."

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