We’ve taken another case up to the Supreme Court! In Robertson v. Intratek Computer, Inc., a pending petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court, we asked the Court to determine whether a government contractor or grantee may force an employee to arbitrate their whistleblower retaliation claims
Hark, frēndes! The feld flours blosme and the sǒnne shines. “Tis spring. And that means its Ren Fest season!
Right now, through April 24, just outside of Austin there is the Sherwood Forest Faire. After that, head north by horse for three days and you will
Not cool. On its face that violates the Equal Pay Act. The Equal Pay Act is a federal law that states employees of one sex must be paid the same as employees of the opposite sex for the same job. Here it is in legalese:
No
It’s dark out there right now.
In Texas, it is judicial fact that women and people of color have less rights than they do almost anywhere else in the country. Regarding women, I am obviously talking about the Supreme Court’s ruling allowing the flagrantly unconstitutional 6-week
In the classic Thanksgiving film Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, Steve Martin’s character meets Del Griffith, a salesman played by John Candy, at an airport. In fact, Del is the director of sales, shower curtain ring division for American Light & Fixture. He works hard at
Human Resources has called you into a meeting. At first, you are nervous. You wonder if someone caught you taking Carl’s lunch from the fridge or if all of those pens you accidentally put in your pocket are going to come back to haunt you. But
On December 18, 2020, I published a blog all about 42 U.S.C. § 1981 (“§ 1981” or “Section 1981”) claims. I’m sure you remember it. It was pretty great, if I do say so myself.
But just in case, very briefly, § 1981 prohibits race discrimination
If a person or company breaches a contract they have, that person or company can be sued immediately in court. If someone gets in a car wreck, in theory, a lawsuit could happen the next day. Ditto if you don’t get paid minimum wage or overtime. But with employment
Under the Equal Pay Act, an employer must pay both men and women equally if they perform equal work. That raises the question of what equal work means. The statute itself helps with this question a little bit. The text of the statute states that work is considered equal if the performance of both jobs
In order to make a viable retaliation claim, a plaintiff must generally have evidence of each element of a what is called a prima facie case. The phrase prima facie simply means “on first impression.” In the employment law context, a prima facie case means the basic elements of a claim that, if true, give rise to an inference of discrimination or retaliation. So for a retaliation claim, a plaintiff must usually show the following elements (1) that the plaintiff engaged in protected activity, (2) that the plaintiff suffered a materially adverse action, and (3) that a causal link exists between the protected activity and the adverse action. If facts establish each of those elements, then under the law, an inference of retaliation arises, which the defendant must then rebut by producing a legitimate, non-retaliatory reason for the adverse action. The purpose of this post is to briefly discuss what is necessary to show that third all-important causal link element under Fifth Circuit law.
The first thing that needs to be made clear is what level of causation is necessary to show the causal link. The causal link standard is very low. According to the Fifth Circuit, all a plaintiff must show to establish a prima facie causal link is that the protected activity and the adverse action are “not wholly unrelated.” See Medina v. Ramsey Steel Co., 238 F.3d 674, 684 (5th Cir. 2001). So how do you do that?
