Tag Archive for: Fifth Circuit

Fifth Circuit eliminates the Ultimate Employment Decision requirement in Title VII discrimination cases

In a case entitled Hamilton v. Dallas County, the Fifth Circuit eliminated the “ultimate employment decision” requirement in Title VII discrimination cases. The case is significant because the requirement for an employer to have taken an actual adverse employment action, in other words to have made some some “ultimate employment decision” that affected the plaintiff’s employment, has been a threshold requirement that allowed judges to review whether a case warranted litigation. Whether judges should even be doing so has itself been an on-going policy debate.

By eliminating this threshold, the Fifth Circuit may have put itself at odds with a number of other courts creating a split that may well rise to the Supreme Court.

The actual impact of this decision — if it withstands Supreme Court review — is arguable since even the Fifth Circuit still requires the plaintiff to prove the discrimination impacted their “hiring, firing, compensation, or other ‘terms, conditions or privileges’ of her employment.” indeed the Fofth Corcuit characterizes its own decision as simply simplifying its own test to bring it in line with other Circuits, which focus on whether there has been a showing of an impact to hiring, firing, etc. In other words, the decision may be more about the semantics of how the Fifth Circuit phrases its test rather than any substantive split.

What Does ACA Ruling Mean? | Colorado’s Morning News | KOA NewsRadio

Great time this morning on 850 KOA Colorado’s Morning News, discussing the Texas court’s recent ruling, holding that the Individual Mandate in Obamacare exceeds Congressional power and is inseverable from the remainder of Obamacare. Reminder, although the judge has struck down Obamacare, the judge has not yet issued a final ruling. How and whether the Texas court will issue an injunction freezing Obamacare is yet to be seen. Employers should continue to comply with Obamacare at this time.

We discuss this week’s healthcare ruling and what it means going forward.  Does the ruling have an immediate impact on those depending on the…
— Read on koanewsradio.iheart.com/featured/colorado-s-morning-news/content/2018-12-18-what-does-aca-ruling-mean/

Fifth Circuit affirms OSHA’s Controlling Employer doctrine

Applying Chevron deference, the Fifth Circuit has affirmed OSHA’s controversial Controlling Employer doctrine, which allows OSHA “to issue citations to controlling employers at multi-employer worksites for violations of the Act’s standards,” even if none of the controlling employer’s workers were exposed.

Source: Acosta v. Hensel Phelps Construction Company (5th Cir. 11/16/18).