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Full-Text Articles in Law
Unmasking A Pretext For Res Ipsa Loquitur: A Proposal To Let Employment Discrimination Speak For Itself, William R. Corbett
Unmasking A Pretext For Res Ipsa Loquitur: A Proposal To Let Employment Discrimination Speak For Itself, William R. Corbett
Journal Articles
Has too much tort law been incorporated into the case law under the federal employment discrimination statutes? The debate on this issue has been reinvigorated by the Supreme Court’s decision in Staub v. Proctor Hospital, 131 S. Ct. 1186 (2011). In Staub the Court referred to the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act, a federal employment discrimination statute, as a “federal tort.” The Court then adopted the tort doctrine of proximate cause as the standard for evaluating subordinate bias (or “cat’s paw”) liability. Staub was not the first case in which the Court has suggested that a federal employment …
Hotness Discrimination: Appearance Discrimination As A Mirror For Reflecting On The Body Of Employment Discrimination Law, William R. Corbett
Hotness Discrimination: Appearance Discrimination As A Mirror For Reflecting On The Body Of Employment Discrimination Law, William R. Corbett
Journal Articles
This essay considers the topic of appearance-based employment discrimination. The essay introduces the topic by juxtaposing the “hot” story of the summer, the bank employee who claims that she was fired for “being too hot,” with Professor Deborah Rhode’s recently published book, The Beauty Bias: The Injustice of Appearance in Life and Law. In the essay, I argue that although appearance discrimination is one of the most common forms of discrimination in employment and other areas of life and generally is regarded as at least unfair and perhaps immoral, neither federal nor many state employment discrimination laws will be amended …
Babbling About Employment Discrimination Law: Does The Builder Understand The Blueprint For The Great Tower?, William R. Corbett
Babbling About Employment Discrimination Law: Does The Builder Understand The Blueprint For The Great Tower?, William R. Corbett
Journal Articles
The article focuses on the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in which the Court held that a plaintiff asserting an intentional age discrimination claim cannot avail himself of the mixed-motives proof structure and instead must prove but-for causation. Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., 129 S. Ct. 2343 (2009). The decision was controversial, and it has provoked calls for a legislative response. My article considers Gross from two perspectives. First, Gross is the second Supreme Court decision, following Desert Palace, Inc. v. Costa, 539 U.S. 90 (2003), to interpret the effects of the Civil Rights Act of 1991 on the …
Fixing Employment Discrimination Law, William R. Corbett
Fixing Employment Discrimination Law, William R. Corbett
Journal Articles
Employment discrimination law in the United States is "broken." The proof structures that are used to analyze claims,rule on motions, and instruct juries are fraught with crucial uncertainties. The state of disrepair is so bad that lawyers and judges do not know how to analyze any given case. It is time for Congress to repair the proof structures through legislation, and it is a propitious time to do so. This article proposes the repairs that Congress should enact.