Hobby Lobby ordered to pay $220,000 to a transgender employee who was banned from using the women's bathroom

• A court has ordered Hobby Lobby to pay transgender employee $220,000 in a discrimination case.
• The Illinois Second District Appellate Court says Hobby Lobby barred Meggan Sommerville from using the women's bathroom.
• The court ruled that Hobby Lobby unlawfully discriminated against Sommerville by banning her from the bathroom.

Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. has been ordered to pay a transgender employee $220,000 after barring her from using the women's bathroom.

The ruling, made by the Illinois Second District Appellate Court on Friday, found that Hobby Lobby unlawfully discriminated against Meggan Sommerville at a store in East Aurora, Illinois, Forbes.

"Sommerville is female, just like the women who are permitted to use the women's bathroom," the court said in its ruling. "The only reason that Sommerville is barred from using the women's bathroom is that she is a transgender woman, unlike the other women (at least, as far as Hobby Lobby knows.)"

The case dates back to the early 2010s, when Sommerville first told her employer that she was transitioning and had planned on using the women's bathroom.