Today, the United States Supreme Court issued its decision in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar. In that decision, the United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 ruling with Justice Kennedy being the swing vote, held that mixed motive is dead with respect to retaliation claims under title VII of the Civil
June 2013
Why all colleges, universities, and graduate programs need to do the two-step (with apologies to the state of Texas): essential eligibility requirements and direct threat
Just recently, the Department of Justice, the Department of Health and Human Services, and the Department of Education joined forces to issue a letter (the link will take you to the press release. In that press release, there is another link to the letter itself), to schools of medicine, schools of dentistry, schools of nursing,…
Legal narcotics and the ADA
In a previous blog, we talked about marijuana and the ADA. What about narcotics that are prescribed by a physician subsequent to a surgery? Would it be a reasonable accommodation to allow the plaintiff to return to work while using narcotic medications? It’s a justiciable question given the facts it had before it says…
Federal laws/regulations allowing for discrimination can trump the ADA (even if adopted at the state level)
The United States Supreme Court and the regulations implementing title I of the ADA allow for a complete defense to discrimination against persons with disabilities when the discrimination is necessary in order to comply with other federal law or regulations. Albertsons v. Kirkingburg 527 U.S. 555, 570, 570 n.16; see also id. at 578 (J.…