Law Commons^™

MartinIzing Title I Of The Americans With Disabilities Act, Nicole B. Porter

Faculty Publications

Prior to the ADA Amendments Act of 2008, relatively few cases proceeded past the initial inquiry of whether the plaintiff was covered by the ADA. Consequently, the scope of an employer's obligation to provide a reasonable accommodation to an individual with a disability remains under-developed and under-theorized. Now that the Amendments have made it easier for plaintiffs to prove that they have a disability under the ADA, we can expect to see more courts struggling with many difficult reasonable accommodation issues. The current case law is chaotic, providing little guidance to employers and courts in determining whether an accommodation is …

Why Care About Caregivers? Using Communitarian Theory To Justify Protection Of "Real" Workers, Nicole B. Porter

Faculty Publications

What is the caregiver conundrum? Simply put, it is the difficulty caregivers face when trying to balance their caregiving responsibilities with their work responsibilities. Caregivers face conflicts both at home and at work when work responsibilities clash with responsibilities at home. In many cases, these conflicts create serious hardships on the caregivers and their loved ones.

Finding a solution to this pressing problem is puzzling because courts and scholars disagree on the scope of the problem. Thus far, courts only protect employees who experience caregiver discrimination because the employer incorrectly assumes the employee will not meet the workplace requirements. In …

Religion In The Workplace: A Report On The Layers Of Relevant Law In The United States, William W. Van Alstyne

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability And Employment Discrimination At The Rehnquist Court, Anita Silvers, Michael E. Waterstone, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Disability, Disparate Impact, And Class Actions, Michael Ashley Stein, Michael E. Waterstone

Faculty Publications

Following Title VII's enactment, group-based employment discrimination actions flourished due to disparate impact theory and the class action device. Courts recognized that subordination that defined a group's social identity was also sufficient legally to bind members together, even when relief had to be issued individually. Woven through these cases was a notion of panethnicity that united inherently unrelated groups into a common identity, for example, Asian Americans. Stringent judicial interpretation subsequently eroded both legal frameworks and it has become increasingly difficult to assert collective employment actions, even against discriminatory practices affecting an entire group. This deconstruction has immensely disadvantaged persons …

Same Struggle, Different Difference: Ada Accommodations As Antidiscrimination, Michael Ashley Stein

Faculty Publications

The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) was heralded as an "emancipation proclamation" for people with disabilities, one that would achieve their equality primarily through its reasonable accommodation requirements. Nevertheless, both legal commentators and Supreme Court Justices assert that the ADA's employment mandates distinguish the ADA from earlier antidiscrimination measures, most notably Title VII, because providing accommodations results in something more than equality for the disabled. The Article challenges this prevalent belief by arguing that ADA-mandated accommodations are consistent with other antidiscrimination measures in that each remedies exclusion from employment opportunity by questioning the inherency of established workplace norms, and by …

Sex Plus Age Discrimination: Protecting Older Women Workers, Nicole B. Porter

Faculty Publications

There is little doubt that sexism and ageism still exist. To remedy these "isms," there are laws to protect both women and older workers from discrimination in the workplace, namely Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ("Title VII"), which prohibits sex discrimination as well as discrimination based on many other protected categories, and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 ("ADEA"), which prohibits age discrimination. Despite these protections, an older woman cannot bring a claim based on the fact that she feels she was discriminated against because she is an older woman. In other words, her …

Marital Status Discrimination: A Proposal For Title Vii Protection, Nicole B. Porter

Faculty Publications

Marital status is not one of the protected categories of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal antidiscrimination statute that governs discrimination in employment. This Article will argue that to avoid the types of inequities caused by marital status discrimination, it is necessary for Title VII to protect employees against marital status discrimination.

The more common claims of marital status discrimination are claims that an employer's no-spouse rule or antinepotism policy violates the state antidiscrimination statute. [These policies have two significant problems.] First of all, many courts fail to look at the widely disparate consequences of …

Civil Rights Act Of 1991 -- Employer Liability For Punitive Damages In Title Vii Claims, Angela M. Banks

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Business Necessity Defense In Disparate Impact Discrimination Cases, Susan Grover

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Reagan Redux: Civil Rights Under Bush, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

The Silenced Majority: Martin V. Wilks And The Legislative Response, Susan Grover

Faculty Publications

An American worker finds himself disadvantaged by an employer's affirmative action program. The worker heads for the courthouse, reverse discrimination complaint in hand. Will he be allowed to sue? Prior to the Supreme Court's 1989 Martin v. Wilks decision, the answer to that question tended to be "no." Wilks changed the answer to an emphatic ·yes." With the 1991 Civil Rights Act, the answer has become "probably not." This article discusses the bar against such challenges as developed through case law and recent congressional action. It addresses the implications that the new statutory bar will have for the structure of …

The Possible Final Word On Employment Discrimination Relief, Neal Devins

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.