Saturday, February 15, 2020
- Law Court: The Maine Whistleblowers’ Protection Act, which prohibits retaliation, in part, for reporting to an employer “what the employee has reasonable cause to believe is a condition or practice that would put at risk the health or safety of that employee or any other individual,” did not protect nursing director at a psychiatric facility who complained that staffing decisions compromised patient and employee safety because the safety issue was already known to his supervisor; and there was no causal connection between his termination and his other, protected reporting
- Maine Legislature: February 19th hearing before Judiciary Committee will address LD 2087, which would largely prohibit an employer from requesting criminal history record information on an initial employee application form
- First Circuit: Summary judgment granted for university on denied tenure professor’s Title VII sex discrimination claim because male comparators who were granted tenure were not similarly situated (they had different subfields from plaintiff) and there was inadequate evidence of pretext; and on Title IX retaliation claim (assuming, without deciding, that there is such a claim) because, under “cat’s paw” theory, individual who professor alleged tainted the tenure denial decision with retaliatory animus was “one of many voices in a chorus cautioning” against her tenure
- First Circuit: Summary judgment granted for town on former fire chief’s Age Discrimination in Employment Act constructive discharge because of age and retaliation claims
- US District Court ME: Summary judgment granted to law enforcement officers on qualified immunity grounds because the “state-created danger doctrine” was not clearly established at the time officers violated plaintiffs’ substantive due process rights
- EEOC: Fiscal Year 2019 Annual Performance Report includes that it has reduced its inventory of pending private sector charges by 12.1 percent, the lowest in 13 years; and its legal staff resolved 173 merit lawsuits
