Protected Class, Summary Judgment

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

The Supreme Court rejects a heightened summary judgment standard for majority group plaintiffs in Title VII discrimination cases

Herbert Smith Freehills Kramer on 6/18/2025

On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in Ames v Ohio Dept. of Youth Services that plaintiffs in the majority group within a protected class have the same burden of proof at summary judgment to demonstrate...more

The Employment Law Reporter - Spring 2021

Rivkin Radler LLP on 4/28/2021

Here is what we cover in this issue of The Employment Law Reporter: •A federal court in New York has dismissed an employment discrimination lawsuit brought by a former employee of the City University of New York. ...more

Fifth Circuit Rejects Title VII Transgender Protection, but Grants Summary Judgment on Other Grounds

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 2/15/2019

In Wittmer v. Phillips 66, Judge James Ho of the Fifth Circuit wasted no time stating the Fifth Circuit’s position on whether sexual orientation or transgender status are protected classes under Title VII – they are not....more

Massachusetts SJC Holds Employers’ Denials of Lateral Transfers May Be Adverse Actions in Discrimination Cases

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 1/31/2019

Massachusetts employers’ decision-making processes with regards to lateral, internal employee transfers are now subject to possible state law discrimination claims. On January 29, 2019, the SJC issued its decision in Yee v....more

Age Discrimination Claims Valid When Both Candidates Over 40

Jackson Lewis P.C. on 2/22/2017

In Irvin v. Ascension Parish School Board, the United States District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana denied Defendant’s motion for summary dismissal of a claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act...more

Third Circuit Permits ADEA “Subgroup” Claims

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace on 2/17/2017

The Third Circuit recently held in Karlo v. Pittsburgh Glass Works, LLC, No. 15-3435, 2017 WL 83385 (3d Cir. Jan. 10, 2017), that workers in their 50s may be recognized as a “subgroup” of employees protected by the Age...more

Ninth Circuit Finds ADA Claims Brought by Employee With Cerebral Palsy Can Go Forward

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,... on 9/2/2016

Facially neutral decisions that are part of routine workforce reductions may not hold up in court if the only employee to be discharged in a group belongs to a protected class. In Schwartz v. Clark County, No. 14-16365 (May...more

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