Category: United States Supreme Court

United States Supreme Court: If a Supervisor Performs an Act Motivated by Antimilitary Animus, Employers May Be Liable Even If a Different Supervisor Fires the Employee

In Staub v. Proctor Hospital, an opinion issued today, the United States Supreme Court ruled  that an employer can be liable for a violation of the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) even if the supervisor who ultimately made the decision to discipline an employee was not motivated by anti-military animus.  The Court […]

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January Was A Busy Month for the Courts!

As you have probably noticed, it has been a long time since I posted anything on my blog.  Please excuse me for failing to do so.  From December 23rd to February 7th was an exceptionally busy time for me.  It included year-end partner meetings, a trial, and deposition preparations. In any event, in the approximate six […]

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A Governmental Entity’s Audit of Text Messages was Reasonable Despite Assumption that Text’s were Private.

On Thursday, June 17, the United States Supreme Court upheld the discipline of a police officer for sending personal and some sexually explicit text messages on a city provided pager.  In Ontario v. Quon, the Supreme Court assumed without holding that the police officer had a reasonable expectation of privacy in his text messages.  It […]

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United States Supreme Court Concludes that Every Time a Discriminatory Practice is Used, it Gives Rise to Discrimination Claim

In a decision issued May 24, 2010, the United States Supreme Court ruled that, in claims of disparate impact, every time a discriminatory practice is used a new cause of action arises, even if the decision establishing that practice was made after the statute of limitations has run.  Justice Scalia, writing the opinion for the Court […]

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Supreme Court Rules that City Violated Title VII When It Threw Out Test Results Because of Its Fear of Violating Title VII.

In an opinion issued today entitled Ricci v. DeStefano, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the city of New Haven, Connecticut violated Title VII when it “threw out” promotional examination results after it discovered that the results disproportionately favored non-minority test takers. Although the city had carefully planned the test and hired an organization […]

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United States Supreme Court Rules that to Prove Age Discrimination Age Must Be More than Just a Motivating Factor

On Thursday, June 18, 2009, the United States Supreme Court ruled that in order to prove age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), a person must prove more than that age was a “motivating factor.” Instead, the Court stated in its opinion entitled Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., that […]

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United States Supreme Court Agrees that Pension Plan that Pays Benefits based on Unequal Credits Given to Pregnant Women is Lawful.

On Monday, May 18, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a pension plan that paid out benefits to pension receipients based upon calculations that did not equally credit women who had taken pregnancy leave prior to the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) were not presently violating the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The Court explained in its […]

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The Supreme Court Upholds Mandatory Arbitration of Age Discrimination Claims in Union Contract.

In a decision issued today, 114 Penn Plaza LLC v. Pyett, the United States Supreme Court ruled that “a collective-bargaining agreement that clearly and unmistakably requires union members to arbitrate [Age Discrimination in Employment Act] ADEA claims is enforceable as a matter of law.” In doing so, the Court acknowledged that it had previously expressed […]

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Employees Who Never File Complaints about Sexual Harassment But Merely Answer Questions are Protected from Retaliation.

The United States Supreme Court ruled in Crawford v. Metropolitan Government that a local government employee who answered questions posed to her about a human resource employee’s alleged sexual harassment was protected from retaliation even when she did not file her own complaint about his behavior. The questions came during an internal investigation being conducted […]

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