Nicole Wittmer filed a lawsuit against Phillips 66 Company, alleging that the company refused to hire her for a job because she is transgender. A federal district court in Texas ruled that Title VII, a federal law that prohibiting sex discrimination in the workplace, protects transgender workers, but that Wittmer had not offered sufficient evidence that her transgender status was the reason she was not hired. Wittmer appealed.

In 2018, NCLR, along with the ACLU, GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders, Lambda Legal, and Freedom for All Americans, filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, arguing that a broad consensus of federal courts have decided that Title VII protects transgender workers from discrimination in the workplace. On February 6, 2019, the Fifth Circuit issued its opinion, upholding the decision of the district court and declining to address whether Title VII protects transgender employees.