The Eleventh Circuit recently gave new life to a plaintiff’s claims of employment discrimination in Jefferson v. Sewon America, Inc., 2018 WL 2449228 (11th Cir. June 1, 2018). Jerberee Jefferson, an African-American woman, filed suit against her former employer, Sewon America, Inc., for racial discrimination and retaliatory termination. Although Jefferson began her career at Sewon…
Tag: Civil rights
Eleventh Circuit Declines to Revisit Dreadlocks Discrimination Case En Banc
Nearly a full year after issuing a revised opinion supporting an initial holding that hairstyles and other “cultural characteristics”—like dreadlocks—cannot form the basis for a Title VII claim of intentional racial discrimination, the Eleventh Circuit denied the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s petition for rehearing en banc in EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions (CMS), 2017 WL…
Revised Opinion Issued After EEOC Seeks En Banc Review of “Dreadlocks” Decision
As we reported here, the Eleventh Circuit rejected a claim for intentional racial discrimination against an employer that had banned “dreadlocks” from the workplace in EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions, 837 F.3d 1156 (11th Cir. Sept. 15, 2016). Apparently dissatisfied with that result, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission filed a petition for rehearing en banc…
Workplace Grooming Policy Against Dreadlocks Held Non-Discriminatory Under Title VII
Does enforcing a workplace policy against dreadlocks amount to intentional racial discrimination against a black or African American job applicant? Despite the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s endorsement of that theory, the Eleventh Circuit rejected its argument yesterday in EEOC v. Catastrophe Management Solutions (CMS), 2016 WL 4916851 (11th Cir. Sept. 15, 2016). The EEOC brought…