Docket: Discrimination/Barriers to Employment
Case Name: Apache v. Davis
Court: Supreme Ct. Tex. Docket: 19-0410
Decided: 6/25/2021
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF), Smith's argument before the court (starts at 31:00) Watch, Court Decision (PDF)
Case Result: The Supreme Court of Texas denied cert, leaving in place a jury verdict in plaintiff’s favor on retaliation claim.
Case Name: Pelcha v. MW Bancorp
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 6th Cir. Docket: 20-3511
Filed: 2/11/2021
Read AARP Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Issue: In a disparate treatment case, does the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) require a plaintiff to prove that her age was “the” only “but-for” cause (i.e., the “sole cause”) of challenged conduct by the employer adverse to the plaintiff.
Case Name: Rabin v. PricewaterhouseCoopers
Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. ND Cal. Docket: 16-02276
Order for Final Approval of Settlement: 2/4/2021
Read Complaint, Press Release,Order for Final Settlement Approval, Proposed Collective & Class Action Settlement, (PDF) Article - Bloomberg "Daily Labor Report"
Case Issue: Do PwC's hiring and related employment practices have the purpose and effect of disadvantaging and deterring older applicants for entry- and mid-level jobs, in violation of federal and California age bias laws?
Case Name: Frappied v. Affinity Gaming Black Hawk
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 10th Cir. Docket: 19-1063
Decided: 7/21/2020
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Result: Reversed decision of 10th Circuit dismissing plaintiffs’ ADEA disparate treatment and disparate impact claims and also their Title VII disparate impact claims; affirmed the dismissal of their Title VII disparate treatment claim.
Case Name: IMDb.com v. Becerra
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 9th Cir Docket: 18-15469; 18-15463
Decided: 6/19/2020
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF), Article, and Opinion (PDF)
Case Issue: Do entertainment employment service providers have a constitutional right to publish age information on the Internet when their subscribers object?
Case Result: The U.S. Court of Appeal affirmed the district court’s decision that California legislation designed to curb age discrimination in the entertainment industry was unconstitutional and that IMDb.com could continue to publish entertainment workers ages and birth dates on its website.
Case Name: Bostock v. Clayton County; Altitude Express v. Zarda; Harris Funeral Homes v. EEOC
Court: U.S. Supreme Ct. Docket: 17-1618; 17-1623;18-107
Read Amicus Brief (PDF), Opinion (PDF) and Article
Decided: 6/15/2020
Case Issue: Does Discrimination against an employee because of sexual orientation constitute prohibited employment discrimination "because of . . . Sex" within the meaning of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. section 2000e-2.
Case Result: Court ruled 6-3 that under Title VII, discrimination “because of . . . sex” includes discrimination on grounds of sexual orientation and transgender status. I.e., “An employer who fires an individual merely for being gay or transgender violates Title VII.”
Case Name: Babb v. Wilkie
Court: U.S. Supreme Ct. Docket: 18-882
Read Amicus Brief (PDF) and Opinion (PDF)
Decided: 4/6/2020
Case Issue: Does the ADEA's federal-sector provision -- which requires that such workplaces be "made free from any discrimination based on age" -- prohibit all federal employer conduct for which age is a consideration, or only such considerations if a federal employee or job applicant can show that they would not have incurred harm to their employment opportunities "but for" such consideration of age?
Case Result: Reversed decision of 11th Cir. (affirming district court judgment vs. plaintiff-employee Babb and for defendant-employer United States).
Case Name: Harris v. Union Pacific Railroad
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 8th Cir. Docket: 19-1514
Decided: 3/24/2020
Read Amicus Brief (PDF) and Opinion (PDF)
Case Issue: May a class action be certified under the Americans with Disabilities Act to challenge a company-wide policy that affects employees in various jobs with various disabilities?
Case Result: Class certification vacated and remand for individual proceedings.
Case Name: Kwesell v. Yale University
Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. Conn. Docket: 3:19-cv-01098
Read: Complaint (PDF), Article, WNPR Listen/Read
Filed: 7/16/2019
Case Issue: Is a wellness program that fines employees $1,300. per year for refusing to reveal medical and genetic information and submit to medical examinations "voluntary" under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act (GINA).
Case Name: Taylor v. Burlington Northern RR Holdings
Court: Supreme Ct. State of Washington Docket: 96335-5 (9th Cir. No. 16-35205)
Decided: 7/11/2019
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF) and Decision (PDF)
Case Issue: Is obesity an impairment under the Washington Law Against Discrimination (WLAD), Revised Code of Washington, Section 49.60.040 and, if so, under what circumstances?
Answer to certified question: "obesity always qualifies as an impairment under the plain language of [Revised Code of Washington] 49.60.040(7)(c)(i) because it is a 'psysiological disorder, or condition' that affects many . . . body systems."
Case Name: Richardson v. Chicago Transit Authority
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 7th Cir. Docket: 17-3508
Read Amicus Brief (PDF), Article and Decision
Decided: 6/12/2019
Case Result: The Seventh Circuit ruled that a Chicago bus driver’s “extreme obesity” did not constitute an “impairment” covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) absent proof either that it was caused by a separate, underlying physiological disorder or condition or that, on its own, it constituted a physiological disorder. The Court rejected AARP’s and Richardson’s arguments that the ADA, as amended in 2008, calls for a more lenient analysis of what constitutes an ADA impairment. The Court affirmed a district court’s dismissal of Mr. Richardson’s challenge to his termination.
Case Name: Kleber v. CareFusion
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 7th Cir. Docket: 17-1206
Read AARP's Appellant Brief (PDF), Reply Brief (PDF) and En banc Decision (PDF) Petition for Cert (4/23/2019, PDF)
Decided: 1/23/2019 Petition for Cert Filed: 4/23/2019 Cert Denied: 10/7/2019
Result Note: The U.S. Supreme Court denied Kleber's petition for certiorari. As a result, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit's decision that section 4(a)(2) of the Age Discriminaiton in Employment Act (ADEA) does not permit outside job applicants to challenge unreasonable hiring policies and practices under the disparate impact theory is allowed to stand.
Case Result: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, sitting en banc, reversed a favorable panel decision and held that the district court properly dismissed a job applicant's disparate impact claim against a potential employer for age discrimination because section 4(a)(2) of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA), does not apply to outside job applicants.
Case Name: Reagan-Diaz v. Sessions
Court: U.S. Ct. App. D.C. Cir Docket: 17-5092
Decided: 1/11/2019
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Result: The D.C. Circuit upheld the district court's decision that Reagan-Diaz's requested accommodation of an initial 2-hour workday was unreasonable and held that she could not perform the essential functions of her job.
Case Name: Mt. Lemmon Fire Dist. v. Guido & Rankin
Court: U.S. Supreme Court Docket: 17-587
Decided: 11/6/2018
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF) and Decision
Case Result: Unanimous affirmance of ninth circuit decision upholding application of ADEA to state and local government employers regardless of number of employees.
Case Name: American Diabetes Ass'n v. U.S. Dept. Army
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 9th Cir. Docket: 18-15242
Filed: 6/29/2018
Read Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Issue: Does a large entity engaged in legal advocacy incur an "injury-in-fact"--required by Article III of the U.S. Constitution to establish "organizational standing"--by virtue of a single contact between the organization's legal advocacy staff and parents conplaining about a matter affecting the group's organizational mission?
Case Name: Taaffe v. Drake
Court: U.S. Dist Ct. SD Ohio Docket: 15-02870
Decided:6/20/2018
Read Complaint, Settlement (PDF) Article and Podcast
Case Result: Plaintiffs reinstated to prior positions. OSU paid $765,000 and agreed to add "age" to the list of protected categories on job posting sites; hold two trainings regarding age discrimination and HR investigations; adopt a "second look" policy where HR complainants can appeal results of investigation and obtain an unconflicted individual's review; and University-wide review of all discrimination policies and guidelines.
Case Name: Epic Systems v. Lewis; NLRB v. Murphy Oil; Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris
Court: U.S. Supreme Court Docket: 16-285; 16-300; 16-307
Decided: 5/21/2018
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Result: The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) requires enforcement of an employer’s requirement that employees resolve legal disputes disputes with the employer in individual arbitration, and neither the FAA’s savings clause nor the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) requires employees to be allowed to resolve such disputes collectively or as a class.
Case Name: Williams v. Tarrant County College District (TCCD)
Court: U.S. Ct. App. 5th Cir. Docket: 16-11804
Filed: 4/19/2017
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Issue: Did Ms. Williams' employer, who conceded she is a person with an ADA "impairment," thereby regard her as having an ADA disability?
Case Name: Green v. Dallas County Schools
Court: Supreme Ct. Texas Docket: 16-0214
Filed: 8/3/2016
Read AARP's Amicus Brief (PDF)
Case Issue: Are plaintiffs suing under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), or under a state law similar to the ADA or following interpretations under the ADA, required to show the underlying cause of their disability in order to demonstrate a covered "disability," and thereby to be entitled to the ADA's (or an equivalent state law's) antidiscrimination protection.
Case Name: Raymond v. Spirit AeroSystems
Court: U.S. Dist. Ct. Kansas Docket: 16-cv-01282
Filed: 7/11/2016
Read Press Release and Complaint
Case Issue: In conducting a reduction-in-force, did the aerospace company target older workers in the hope of eliminating individuals with costly medical claims from the firm's self-insured medical plan?