Supreme Court Case

Civil rights, employment discrimination, HARASSMENT, Title VII

University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar

Oral argument: April 24, 2013

Court below: United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

Eradicating unlawful discrimination and retaliation in the workplace is one of core purposes of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Respondent Dr. Naiel Nassar, a former faculty member of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center (UTSW), alleges that his employer denied him a job in retaliation for a prior resignation letter alleging race discrimination in the workplace. Specifically, Nassar's resignation letter stated that his supervisor made derogatory comments about his Middle Eastern descent. Petitioner UTSW argues that Nassar needs to prove that retaliation was the sole motivating factor for the negative employment action. In contrast, Nassar argues that he need only show that retaliation was a motivating factor, but not necessarily the only one, for the negative employment action. A holding for UTSW may make it more difficult for victims of retaliation under Title VII to sue their employers, whereas a holding for Nassar may increase the costs borne by employers in defending against potentially meritless litigation.

Continues... http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/cert/12-484

Source: [LII] Legal Information Institute | Cornell Law School

Civil Rights Advocate Dies

Eugene Patterson, voice on civil rights, dies at 89

Published January 13, 2013

Associated Press

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  Eugene Patterson, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editor and columnist whose impassioned words helped draw national attention to the civil rights movement as it unfolded across the South, has died at 89.

  
  

  Patterson, who helped fellow whites to understand the problems of racial discrimination, died Saturday evening in Florida after complications from prostate cancer, according to B.J. Phillips, a family spokeswoman

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  Patterson was editor of the Atlanta Constitution from 1960 to 1968, winning a Pulitzer Prize in 1967 for editorial writing. His famous column of Sept, 16, 1963, about the Birmingham, Ala., church bombing that killed four girls -- "A Flower for the Graves" -- was considered so moving that he was asked by Walter Cronkite to read it nationally on the "CBS Evening News."

  
  

  "A Negro mother wept in the street Sunday morning in front of a Baptist Church in Birmingham," Patterson began his column. "In her hand she held a shoe, one shoe, from the foot of her dead child. We hold that shoe with her.

  
  
  Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2013/01/13/eugene-patterson-voice-on-civil-rights-dies-at-8/#ixzz2HtGMphZl
  

  
  

  
  

Source: AP and (AP Photo/The Tampa Bay Times, Cherie Diez) TAMPA OUT; CITRUS COUNTY OUT; PORT CHARLOTTE OUT; BROOKSVILLE HERNANDO TODAY OUT (Tampa Bay Times2012)

New "guidance" on Race Factors in Schools

Federal civil rights officials last week said that school districts and colleges and universities may legally consider race when making decisions about school assignments, admissions and other programs that are designed to increase diversity and reduce racial isolation.
The U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Department of Education jointly released the new, more flexible guidelines that are meant to clear up confusion on how and when race can be considered in the wake of three earlier U.S. Supreme Court decisions.