SCOTUS surprise? Court could make it easier for Title VII claims to reach a jury

The Myth: The U.S. Supreme Court is pro-employer. The Truth: The U.S. Supreme Court is pro-employee. Why? All the Justices agree on the power of “textualism,” which means that a court must strictly follow the words of a statute as set out by the legislative body, without a court’s own gloss or gilding. By following this doctrine, the Court made it easier for an employee to prove an employer’s failure to provide an accommodation to a religious belief or practice and to assert that the employee is suffering an adverse employment action. In my view, an uber pro-employee holding is now on the horizon and will fill out this trifecta. Read on!

How is summary judgment determined?

Recall that summary judgment (dismissal without a trial) is when an employer completes pretrial fact finding and tells the court, “Look, here are the undisputed facts, and when we apply the law to them, we win without a jury trial.”

Here’s the formula laid out by the Supreme Court back in 1973 to make this determination: The employee first establishes a prima facie (minimally sufficient) case, which simply entails alleging that they belong to a protected classification; offering an allegation that they suffered an adverse action at work (as minimal as being transferred to a less nice office); and that there is a connection between their status and the adverse action.