By Brooke Sopelsa

Republican officials from 16 states are urging the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court ruling that a transgender woman who was fired after coming out to her boss was unlawfully discriminated against, and rule that federal civil rights law does not provide protections on the basis of gender identity.

In March, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 3-0 in favor of Aimee Stephens, who was fired from a Detroit funeral home in 2013 after informing her employer that she was transgender and beginning her transition. The court ruled that Title VII protects transgender workers and that an employer’s religious beliefs cannot be used to justify discrimination.

“The unrefuted facts show that the Funeral Home fired Stephens because she refused to abide by her employer’s stereotypical conception of her sex," Judge Karen Nelson Moore wrote for the court.

Moore added that requiring the business owner, Thomas Rost, "to comply with Title VII's proscriptions on discrimination does not substantially burden his religious practice."