Yesterday’s blog post about one of the discrimination cases decided by the Supreme Court Monday.

The second case that the Supreme Court decided on was one that reversed the U.S. Court of Appeals’ decision.

Dr. Naiel Nassar, an employee of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, and of Middle Eastern descent, quit his faculty job after he was allegedly discriminated against by the head of his department. The medical clinic affiliated with the university then rescinded their job offer to him. Dr. Nassar filed a lawsuit claiming retaliation based on his discrimination claims.

The Court of Appeals ruled that the plaintiff need only prove that retaliation was one of any number of factors driving the employment decision.  However, the NCLC urged the Supreme Court to reverse this decision arguing that the plaintiff should have to prove that the employer would not have rescinded the offer if it weren’t for the discrimination claims.

According the NCLC, the Supreme Court’s reversal (also a 5-4 vote) will help alleviate the significant costs imposed upon employers forced to settle groundless discrimination lawsuits in order to avoid time consuming and costly litigation.

However, there are also many criticisms of the Court’s decision. The potential ramifications of these decisions will be discussed in our next post.

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