Appeals, Disparate Treatment, 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

Federal Appeals Court Rules Plaintiffs Must Use More Than National Criminal Statistics to Prove Racial Discrimination

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 9/28/2020

According to U.S. Department of Justice statistics, Black men in the U.S. are more likely to be arrested and have criminal convictions on their records than their white counterparts. Last week, a split Second Circuit Court of...more

Fourth Circuit Finds Two Race Discrimination Claims Failed to Allege Sufficiently Hostile Work Conditions

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 9/9/2019

In recent years, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals (which includes North Carolina and South Carolina) has lowered the bar for plaintiffs to take racial harassment claims to a jury trial when the alleged conduct involved use...more

Eleventh Circuit Declines EEOC’s Invitation To Expand Race To Include Personal Expression Or Cultural Characteristics

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 9/20/2016

Seyfarth Synopsis: After a black woman’s employment offer was rescinded because she refused to cut off her dreadlocks in violation of a company grooming policy, the EEOC sued under Title VII for discrimination on the basis...more

School of Hard (Dread) Locks: EEOC Loses Appeal Over Hairstyle Ban

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 9/20/2016

Last week the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court’s dismissal of a case the EEOC filed over a job applicant’s short dreadlocks. In 2010, Chastity Jones, an African American, applied for a position with...more

Employee Does Not Have to Seek Raise to Maintain Pay Discrimination Action

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP on 11/2/2015

Title VII and related federal anti-discrimination laws prohibit employers from discriminating against persons based on their membership in a protected category. These discrimination prohibitions include pay disparities. What...more