Employment Law Legends

When should employers be liable for the hostile work environments created by their supervisors’ sexually harassing conduct? This episode examines the legal saga that untangled this question and the United States Supreme Court’s extraordinary decision to create the two-part Faragher-Ellerth affirmative defense.

Is a person who wears glasses considered disabled under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)? The answer to this question would perplex the courts for years and lead to a legendary showdown between Congress and the Supreme Court of the United States. When the dust settled, disability law would be changed forever.

This episode examines the legal battle to define religious accommodations in the workplace. The case Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison was controversial from the day it was announced in 1977. The United States Supreme Court held that employers only have a duty to provide minimal accommodations to the religious beliefs of employees. Over the last forty years, many unsuccessful attempts have been made to overrule the decision yet there has been no consensus on the right approach. Did the Supreme Court reach the right decision or are we headed to Armageddon? You decide.

This episode examines the evolution of the famous McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework and its lasting impact on the nature of proof in employment lawsuits. This is one of the most widely-cited employment law cases of the modern era and continues to shape how we think about and litigate employment discrimination lawsuits.

This episode examines Griggs v. Duke Power Company, the origins of the Disparate Impact Theory, and the legal battle to define discrimination in the Civil Rights Era.

Today, we take it for granted that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibits sexual harassment in the workplace. However, this development was never assured. It would take over twenty years and a hard-fought legal battle before this cause of action was finally recognized by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1986. This episode examines Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson and the development of the definition of sexual harassment in the workplace.

For over eighty years, courts have accepted that Congress and the states have the power to regulate the terms and conditions of the employment relationship. But before this consensus developed, Elsie Parrish, a hotel chambermaid, and President Franklin Roosevelt joined forces to challenge the Supreme Court of the United States. This pilot episode examines West Coast Hotel v. Parrish, President Roosevelt’s doomed court-packing plan, the Constitutional Revolution of 1937, and the beginning of modern employment law in the United States.