Fifth Circuit Recognizes Age-Based Hostile Environment Claim

Ford & Harrison LLP
September 2011

Executive Summary: For the first time, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals has held that a plaintiff can pursue a claim for a hostile work environment based on age. See Dediol v. Best Chevrolet, Inc. (5th Cir. Sep. 12, 2011). If other federal appeals courts follow this reasoning and recognize age-based hostile work environment claims, more employers may find themselves involved in such litigation. Implementing policies prohibiting harassment, establishing effective complaint procedures and training employees and supervisors on these policies and procedures can help prevent costly litigation and/or provide a defense in the event of litigation.

Full Story: http://www.fordharrison.com/shownewsletter.aspx?Show=7628&Item=7625&Email=execdir@affirmativeaction.org&mailingId=4428#7628

Appeals court declines to rehear Texas affirmative action case

Thompson Reuters News & Insight
6/20/2011

NEW YORK, June 20 (Reuters) - A federal appeals court has refused to rehear a case challenging the University of Texas' affirmative action admissions policy. The denial sets the stage for a fight in the U.S. Supreme Court.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit on Friday rejected a motion asking the court to reconsider its decision in January upholding the school's policy that considers race in determining admissions.
The 9-7 en banc ruling means that the next step for plaintiffs will likely be an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. Chances the high court will hear the case are good, between 30 percent to 50 percent, said Ilya Somin, a professor at George Mason University School of Law who has blogged about the case on the legal weblog, Volokh Conspiracy.

Full Story: http://newsandinsight.thomsonreuters.com/Legal/News/2011/06_-_June/Appeals_court_declines_to_rehear_Texas_affirmative_action_case/

One Nation, Indivisible

The New York Times
Editorial
Published: January 26, 2011

Fifteen years ago, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit flouted Supreme Court law when it struck down affirmative action at the University of Texas Law School. Last week, in an act of redemption, the appellate court upheld an admissions plan for undergraduates at the University of Texas at Austin that takes race into account to encourage diversity. The plan was adopted after the Supreme Court again approved affirmative action in higher education in 2003.

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/opinion/27thu3.html?_r=1

Affirmative Action Suit Challenges UT Admission Policy

The Texas Tribune
by Morgan Smith July 21, 2010

If two young women have their way, the University of Texas may soon rival the University of Michigan as the nation's top breeding ground for affirmative action jurisprudence.
Abigail Fisher and her co-plaintiff, Rachel Michalewicz, are the faces of a movement to overturn a landmark 2003 U.S. Supreme Court opinion allowing the use of race in the admissions process at the Michigan Law School. Their chosen target is UT, which denied them both admission in 2008. They believe that happened because they're white.
On Aug. 3, the federal 5th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments in their lawsuit, which has attracted widespread attention from the legal community, including an amicus brief from the Obama administration in support of the university’s position. The case threatens to reinvigorate an ideological skirmish that reached its peak in the late 1990s.
Fisher and Michalewicz’s challenge to the use of race is the first in an undergraduate setting since the high court handed down Grutter v. Bollinger and its companion case, Gratz v. Bollinger — a pair of decisions that articulated how schools could use race-based affirmative action to select their incoming classes. The current plaintiffs lost in district court, in a 2009 ruling that affirmed the university’s policies were within constitutional bounds set forth in Grutter, which allows schools to use race as factor in the holistic consideration of candidates. (Explore annotated versions of both sides' appellate briefs and the district court's opinion here.)

Full Story: http://www.texastribune.org/texas-education/higher-education/affirmative-action-suit-challenges-ut-policy/

Higher-Education Groups Back U. of Texas in Affirmative Action Case

The Chronicle of Higher Education
March 15, 2010

Fourteen national higher-education associations have filed a friend-of-the-court brief urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to uphold the use of race-conscious admission policies by the University of Texas at Austin. A lawsuit challenging the university's decision to go back to considering race after several years without doing so argues that the university had achieved sufficient diversity in its enrollments through other, race-neutral means, such as a state law guaranteeing admission to students in the top 10th of their high-school class. The associations' brief argues that Supreme Court precedents concerning academic freedom give colleges a First Amendment.

Full Story: http://chronicle.com/blogPost/Higher-Education-Groups-Back/21830/?sid=at&utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

For a copy of the ACE, et al. amicus brief, go to: http://www.acenet.edu/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Legal_Issues_and_Policy_Briefs2&TEMPLATE=/CM/ContentDisplay.cfm&CONTENTID=35880