Appeals, Adverse Employment Action, Race Discrimination

Why Comparator Analysis Matters: A Key Fourth Circuit Ruling

Poyner Spruill LLP on 7/29/2025

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 generally prohibits covered employers from taking adverse actions against employees on the basis of race, sex, and other protected categories. Employee discipline is often the subject...more

Alleged Attempt to Change Business' Demographics Deemed Direct Evidence of Discrimination

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 10/7/2022

Under the “stray remarks” doctrine, courts can conclude that an employer’s expressions of frustration, or comments by a manager not involved in an adverse employment decision, are not persuasive evidence of...more

Fourth Circuit Addresses Question of Employer Knowledge in Title VII Retaliation Suit

Poyner Spruill LLP on 7/17/2018

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits not only discrimination in employment on the basis of certain protected categories such as race, but also retaliation against an employee who opposes such discrimination....more

Refusal to Transfer an Employee as an Adverse Employment Action; or, How Life Imitates 1950s Movies

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on 9/29/2017

In the classic 1955 movie, Mister Roberts, Henry Fonda plays Doug Roberts, a frustrated Naval officer aboard a supply ship in a backwater area of the Pacific during World War II. Roberts desperately seeks a transfer to a...more

California Court Overturns Employee’s Jury Verdict in Reverse Discrimination Case

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on 11/25/2014

Norton v. San Bernardino City Unified School District, No. G049496 (October 9, 2014): A California Court of Appeal recently overturned a jury verdict against an employer on the basis that the jury was incorrectly instructed...more

Back on the Case: Fifth Circuit Reexamines Detective's Race Suit

Baker Donelson on 10/21/2014

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 requires that an individual show that he or she was subjected to an "adverse employment action" in order to proceed on a claim of discrimination. Courts have defined "adverse...more