The 150 lb. lifting requirement was purely artificial. It discriminated against pregnant nurses. Pregnant nurses at this hospital needed a doctor's certificate saying they could lift 150 lbs., or they were forced out.
Pregnant women are a specific category of persons protected by law from employment discrimination.
This means whether or not an actual intent to discriminate can be proven, a physical-ability requirement is not going to pass for a bona fide occupational qualification, the court stated, if it is having the actual effect of pregnant women losing their jobs. In this case, the hospital wrongly placed newly-pregnant nurses on involuntary medical leave, assuming the pregnant nurse's physician would not say she could push, pull, lift and support over 150 lbs. Pregnant nurses then fell victim to the hospital's rule that all employees out more than six months on medical leave had to be terminated. The court was convinced the hospital's lifting requirement for nurses was purely artificial. The nurse in question was never tested, before she was hired, or after she was hired and before she became pregnant, to see if she could lift 150 lbs.