Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Law Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Series

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

Civil Rights and Discrimination

Pregnancy Discrimination Act

Publication Year

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Law

Expanding The Core: Pregnancy Discrimination Law As It Approaches Full Term, Joanna L. Grossman Jan 2016

Expanding The Core: Pregnancy Discrimination Law As It Approaches Full Term, Joanna L. Grossman

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

The advocates behind the Pregnancy Discrimination Act (PDA) of 1978 had one very specific mission: to override the Supreme Court’s 1976 decision in General Electric v. Gilbert, in which it had curiously held that pregnancy discrimination had nothing to do with gender and was thus not a form of actionable sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Court was not acting on a blank slate; it had used the same reasoning two years earlier to hold, in Geduldig v. Aiello, that pregnancy discrimination was not sex discrimination for equal protection purposes and therefore was …


Introduction To Amici Curiae Brief In Young V. United Parcel Service, Inc., Joanna L. Grossman, Deborah L. Brake Jan 2015

Introduction To Amici Curiae Brief In Young V. United Parcel Service, Inc., Joanna L. Grossman, Deborah L. Brake

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

On March 25, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its decision in Young v. United Parcel Service, Inc., the most important pregnancy discrimination case before the Court in nearly a quarter century. The Court ruled for Peggy Young in a decision that will chart the path of pregnancy discrimination litigation for years to come. Our brief, published here with a short introduction, lays out our theory for why an employer’s refusal to accommodate pregnancy with light-duty assignments on the same terms as other medical conditions similarly affecting work violates Title VII and the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. The brief was …