The scene outside The Supreme Court Building this morning as police cleared crowds from the sidewalk while they investigated a suspicious package found on the sidewalk. (Lisa Keen/Keen News Service)

Police “cleared throngs” from the sidewalk in front of the U.S. Supreme Court buildings at about 7:55 a.m. EDT this morning (Tuesday, Oct. 8), after finding a “suspicious package” left there near where the crowds were gathering to rally as the justices heard oral arguments in several cases, including three cases that could have significant impact on anti-LGBTQ discrimination in the workplace, according to Lisa Keen of Keen News Service, a freelance journalist covering the hearings for Dallas Voice and other LGBTQ media.

According to a report by The Hill, time-stamped 9:54 EDT, police shut down most of First Street NE in front of the Supreme Court building’s main entrance, and a “stretch of road in front of the Library of Congress was also closed.” The Hill also reports that according to a statement sent out by Capitol Police shortly after 10 a.m., the incident was “cleared without issue.” The statement also indicated that the building remained open during the investigation and was not evacuated.

The Supreme Court today will hear oral arguments in three cases addressing whether Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits workplace discrimination on the bases of sexual orientation and gender identity. Two of the cases — Bostock v. Clayton County and Georgia and Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda — address sexual orientation and have been merged for the purpose of Supreme Court consideration. The third case, Harris Funeral Homes v. Stephens, addresses gender identity.

Dallas businessman Bill Moore, founder and owner of Advanced Skin Fitness, was the partner of the late Donald Zarda, plaintiff in Altitude Express Inc. v. Zarda. Zarda had sued for lost wages after the skydiving company fired him in 2010 because he was gay. Zarda was killed in a skydiving accident in 2014, before the case went to court. But Moore and Zarda’s sister, Melissa, decided to go ahead and pursue the case on his behalf. After losing at the trial court level, they appealed, and the appellate court ruled in their favor, saying that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

Altitude Express then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Moore told the Dallas Morning News that he would be in the D.C. courtroom for today’s hearing, and that he believes Zarda will be there with him.