This week Virginia Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, called Anita Hill and left a message on her answering machine inviting her to apologize for testifying during Clarence Thomas’ confirmation hearings. The call brought back, with surprising immediacy, those 1991 hearings. For those too young to remember, the hearings may be little …
Could Sonia Sotomayor have moved up the ranks in the New Haven Fire Department? The stark contrast between a Hispanic lawyer who has risen to the top of the legal profession and a group of African-American firefighters whose efforts to move up have been stymied by a test points to how differently equal opportunity has …
Mike Zimmer (Loyola), co-author of the leading casebook on employment discrimination and friend of the blog has provided these thoughts on the Supreme Court’s Ricci decision from yesterday. 1. The Holding. The defendants’ decision to not use test results because their use would have meant that no African-American and only two Hispanics, who made up …
On May 27 Workplace Fairness interns Hannah Goitein, Jessica Haden, Shannon Lichtenberg, and I participated in a conference call with The Coalition for Constitutional Values. This national coalition of organizations represents millions of Americans from across the country who believe it is important that the American people be informed about the nomination of Judge Sonia …
Judge Sonia Sotomayor Confirmation: What You Can Do Read More »
Supreme Court nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor is taking heat for being a member of the three-judge panel in Ricci v. DeStefano, a case filed by seventeen white firefighters and one Latino firefighter who were the top-scorers on a multiple-choice firefighter exam. The case is currently under consideration by the U.S. Supreme Court and has prompted …
Is Sotomayor a Reverse Racist?: Testing the Limits of Tests Read More »
In AT&T v. Hulteen Justice Souter authored the 7-2 majority opinion holding that AT&T’s “reliance” interest in perpetuating past pregnancy discrimination trumps the right of Noreen Hulteen and her fellow plaintiffs to enjoy the same level of retirement benefits as other employees with the same longevity of service to the company. This is a deeply …
AT&T v. Hulteen: A Bad Decision that Did Not Have to Be Read More »
Good luck to anyone who is trying to figure out what is going on with the Gross v. FBL Financial Services case argued in the Supreme Court yesterday. I have been doing this work for three decades and I think it’s almost impossible. The questions presented are: In a “mixed-motive” age discrimination case — where both …
Supreme Court Hears “Mixed-Motive” Age Discrimination Case Read More »
Tomorrow, March 24th, Betty Dukes and the now two million women who are members of the largest sex-discrimination class action case, Dukes v. Wal-Mart, move one step closer to victory. A panel of 11 judges of the federal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear Wal-Mart’s latest attempt to stop this case from moving forward …
Talk about the audacity of hope – who could have imagined that barely a week into office, President Obama would sign the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and that the Supreme Court would unanimously rule that employees who report discriminatory treatment during an internal investigation are protected from retaliation by Title VII of the Civil …
Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.
