Appeals, SCOTUS, Disparate Treatment

Supreme Court Rejects Heightened Evidentiary Standard for Majority-Group Plaintiffs in Title VII Discrimination Claims

Warner Norcross + Judd on 6/20/2025

On June 5, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held in Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services that courts cannot apply a heightened evidentiary standard to majority-group plaintiffs when deciding discrimination claims. The...more

SCOTUS Ames Decision: Everyone’s in a “Protected Class”

McGlinchey Stafford on 6/19/2025

In employment law, we traditionally think of discrimination as applying to minority groups: African Americans, women, homosexuals, or other legally protected groups. In analyzing discrimination claims, one of the first...more

Supreme Court Clarifies Title VII Evidentiary Standards in “Reverse Discrimination” Cases, Removing Heightened Standard

Pierce Atwood LLP on 6/16/2025

In Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Servs., the U.S. Supreme Court recently settled a circuit split and held that the Sixth Circuit’s “background circumstances” rule, which was applied only to plaintiffs from majority...more

Supreme Court Rejects Higher Standards for Majority Plaintiffs in Title VII Disparate Treatment Cases

Berkshire on 6/12/2025

The Supreme Court has voted unanimously to end a Circuit Court split regarding whether members of a “majority group” have additional evidentiary burdens when bringing a case under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act for...more

Employees in the “Majority” Do Not Have Higher Burden When Proving Discrimination Says Unanimous Supreme Court

Bracewell LLP on 6/10/2025

In a case filed by a heterosexual woman claiming she was discriminated against due to her sexual orientation, a unanimous United States Supreme Court held that she should not be required to meet a higher standard to prove...more

Supreme Court Rejects Heightened Prima Facie “Background Circumstances” Test for Majority Group Plaintiffs

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on 6/6/2025

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court vacated the dismissal of a heterosexual woman’s Title VII claims, concluding that she was improperly subjected to a heightened prima facie standard that required her to show...more

California Employment Law Notes - July 2015

Proskauer - California Employment Law on 7/17/2015

Employee's Inability To Work For A Particular Supervisor Does Not Constitute A "Disability" - Higgins-Williams v. Sutter Med. Found., 237 Cal. App. 4th 78 (2015) - Michaelin Higgins-Williams worked as a clinical...more

U.S. Supreme Court Announces New Standard for Pregnancy Discrimination Claims

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 3/31/2015

Last Wednesday the U.S. Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc. (UPS), which involves a claim of pregnancy discrimination under the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA)....more

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