Separation agreement inadmissible in Title VII case 
Published: December 30, 2011
Tags: employment discrimination, Title VII
A gender discrimination plaintiff should not have been allowed to introduce evidence of a proposed separation agreement in order to prove her employer’s liability, the 8th Circuit has ruled in reversing a $709,000 judgment.
Attorney fees improperly limited in Title VII case
Published: December 21, 2011
Tags: attorney fees, contingency fee, retaliation, Title VII
A district court improperly relied on an employee’s contingency fee agreement in limiting the amount of attorney fees to be awarded in her Title VII retaliation suit, the 7th Circuit has ruled in reversing judgment.
Religious school can fire teacher over live-in boyfriend
Published: December 16, 2011
Tags: ministerial exception, religious discrimination, Title VII, wrongful discharge
The First Amendment’s ministerial exception bars a wrongful discharge suit brought by a teacher who was fired by a religious school because she was living with her boyfriend, the California Court of Appeal has ruled in affirming judgment.
Employee suing for retaliation can’t show adverse action
Published: November 3, 2011
Tags: retaliation, same-sex harassment, sex harassment, Title VII
A Title VII retaliation plaintiff could not show that he suffered adverse employment actions after complaining about same-sex harassment by a supervisor, the 2nd Circuit has ruled in affirming a judgment vacating a jury’s award of $500,000 in punitive damages.
First new Wal-Mart bias suit filed after Supreme Court ruling
By:
Kimberly Atkins
Published: October 28, 2011
Tags: class action, employment discrimination, Supreme Court, Title VII, unequal pay, Wal-Mart
The first of what promises to be many smaller-sized job discrimination class actions against Wal-Mart in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling barring a single massive class has been filed in California.
Catholic employer can’t be sued for harassment
Published: September 16, 2011
Tags: religious discrimination, Title VII
A Catholic nursing home could not be sued for discrimination by a former employee who claimed that she was harassed and discharged because she wore the religious garb of another faith, the 4th Circuit has ruled in reversing judgment.
State not liable for judge’s sexual harassment
Published: September 9, 2011
Tags: Faragher/Ellerth, sexual harassment, Title VII, vicarious liability
A state is not liable under federal discrimination law for a judge’s alleged sexual harassment of a court employee, the 10th Circuit has ruled in affirming a summary judgment.
Volunteer fire department may be sued under Title VII
Published: September 8, 2011
Tags: gender discrimination, hostile work environment, Title VII
A volunteer fire department may be sued for sexual discrimination under Title VII even though its paid employees numbered less that the statute’s 15-employee threshold, the 6th Circuit has ruled in reversing a dismissal.
Black firefighter can pursue disparate-impact claim
Published: August 18, 2011
Tags: disparate impact, disparate treatment, employment discrimination, Ricci v. Destefano, Title VII
An African-American firefighter can proceed with a Title VII claim alleging that a promotional exam had a disparate impact on minorities – even though his employer argued that its actions were necessary to avoid disparate-treatment liability, the 2nd Circuit has ruled in reversing a dismissal.
Firefighters get $2 million for reverse discrimination
Published: August 1, 2011
Tags: equal protection, race discrimination, reverse discrimination, Ricci v. Destefano, Supreme Court, Title VII
After taking their reverse discrimination case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, 20 firefighters have reached a $2 million settlement with the city of New Haven, Conn.
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