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8th Biennial Employment Law Institute, Office Of Continuing Legal Education At The University Of Kentucky College Of Law

Continuing Legal Education Materials

Materials from the 8th Biennial Employment Law Institute held by UK/CLE in June 2002.

Parental-Status Employment Discrimination: A Wrong In Need Of A Right?, Peggie R. Smith

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article evaluates strategies to challenge employment discrimination based on parental status. Specifically, it examines proposals put forth by some commentators to establish parental status as a protected class. While such a suggestion is attractive, the Article argues that it ultimately offers few practical advantages and remains wedded to a limited conception of equality, requiring only that employment decisions not reflect differences based on parenthood. Consequently, such a strategy would satisfy anti-discrimination legislation so long as both men and women with parental obligations are equally ill-treated. The Article concludes that a shift in perspective from gender to parental status will …

Studying Labor Law And Human Resources In Rhode Island, Stewart J. Schwab

Cornell Law Faculty Publications

Our task today is to celebrate, inaugurate, and educate. Lawyers demanded the education part of the talk because they love double counting whenever possible. The lawyers in our audience get Continuing Legal Education credits for attending. That's just one illustration of how to think like a lawyer--kill as many birds with as few stones as possible.

Lawyers are often accused of talking in an arcane language that no one else can understand. Labor-relations people are sometimes thought to be either pie-in-the-sky optimists or Marxist-inspired anarchists. Human-relations professionals are sometimes said to be hypocrites giving a fake smile to employees while …

No Harm, No Foul?: An Argument For The Allowance Of Punitive Damages Without Compensatory Damages Under 42 U.S.C. § 1981a, Christy Lynn Mcquality

Washington and Lee Law Review

No abstract provided.

Keeping The “Civil” In Civil Litigation: The Need For A Punitive Damage-Actual Damage Link In Title Vii Cases , David C. Searle

Duke Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Whatever Happened To G.I. Jane?: Citizenship, Gender, And Social Policy In The Postwar Era, Melissa E. Murray

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

In this Article, it is argued that the GI Bill is consistent with the social welfare policies of the New Deal period, in particular the Social Security Act of 1935, and so should be examined within the analytical framework established by scholars like Linda Gordon and Theda Skocpol in their studies of the Social Security Act's social welfare programs. Although the Bill is gender-neutral on its face, it was framed by normative assumptions about military participation and work that ensured that it was socially understood to benefit male veterans.

Disability, Doctors And Dollars: Distinguishing The Three Faces Of Reasonable Accommodation, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

Despite a decade of litigation, there is no consistent understanding of the reasonable accommodation requirement of Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (the 'ADA'). Indeed, there are three inconsistent distributive outcomes that appear to comport with the reasonable accommodation requirement: cost-shifting, cost-sharing, and cost-avoidance.

One reason for such inconsistent outcomes is a failure to develop a coherent and consistent theory of disability. Because disability has been and continues to be medicalized, this Article takes a fresh look at the medical literature on health, illness, and disability. It recommends the use of the experiential health model over …

(Un)Welcome Conduct And The Sexually Hostile Environment, Henry L. Chambers, Jr.

Law Faculty Publications

As courts refine the theory underlying sexual harassment and sex discrimination, the unwelcomeness inquiry may become irrelevant to determining whether gender-based conduct is sexually harassing. In addition, the one possible remaining purpose that the unwelcomeness requirement may serve-providing notice to a putative harasser or its employer-is now served by an affirmative defense applicable to many sexual harassment claims. Consequently, its role should be reexamined. This Article does that. Part I of the Article describes a hypothetical situation that provides a context in which to consider unwelcomeness. Part II provides a brief overview of the evolving sexual harassment jurisprudence. Part III …

Making Sense Of Pretext: An Analysis Of Evidentiary Requirements For Summary Judgment Litigants In The Fifth Circuit In Light Of Reeves V. Sanderson Plumbing Prodcuts, And A Proposal For Clarification., Eric S. Riester

St. Mary's Law Journal

Although the United States Supreme Court in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. attempted to clarify the summary judgment landscape of Title VII employment discrimination cases, lower courts in the Fifth Circuit are still without guidance. Under Reeves, direct proof of discrimination is not required to defeat a motion for summary judgment as long as the circumstantial evidence allows a reasonable inference of discrimination. The required strength of the circumstantial evidence, however, remains a major issue in the Fifth Circuit. Since Reeves, the Fifth Circuit has not stated a uniform summary judgment standard, nor has it answered how much circumstantial …

Chevron U.S.A., Inc. V. Echazabal 122s. Ct. 2045 (2002), David Yee

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Chevron U.S.A., Inc. V. Echazabal 122s. Ct. 2045 (2002), David Yee

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Perceived Disabilities, Social Cognition, And "Innocent Mistakes", Michelle A. Travis

Michelle A. Travis

This Article uses social cognition literature to analyze one form of non-prototypic employment discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). When enacting the ADA, Congress recognized that discrimination against individuals with disabilities is so pervasive that it reaches beyond those who possess substantially limiting impairments. Therefore, the ADA protects not only individuals who have an actual disability, but also non-disabled individuals who are mistakenly regarded as disabled by their employer. The field of social cognition, particularly causal attribution theory, studies why, how, and when we misperceive other individuals' capabilities. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, this Article concludes …