Court Opinion

ID: 9490763
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 13:53:55.600747+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:54:18.208076
License: Public Domain

McKEE, Circuit Judge,
dissenting.
I agree that Deborah Rhett’s claim of racial discrimination was properly dismissed. However, I respectfully dissent because I believe that the district court erred in affirming the bankruptcy court’s dismissal of Rhett’s claim of sex discrimination. The bankruptcy court concluded that “the uncontradicted testimony of the debtor establishes that the debtor had to let someone in the secretarial group go and the fact that Rhett was not working for the company at the time made it logical that she be the one.” Bankr Ct. Op. at 15 (1996). I believe that the issue is not whether the employer had a logical reason for choosing Rhett (It clearly did.), but whether doing so when her absence was due solely to her pregnancy was illegal sex discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). I fear that the majority’s failure to hold that it did constitute sex discrimination will eviscerate the protections Congress intended when it enacted the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (“PDA”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k), as an amendment to Title VII.
I. BACKGROUND OF THE PREGNANCY DISCRIMINATION ACT
Title VII makes it an unlawful employment practice for an employer
to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual’s ... sex
§ 2000e-2(a)(l). Congress created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) to implement Title VII and the EEOC developed guidelines through which employers and employees could better understand the protections afforded under Title VII. Those guidelines “implemented the Title VII prohibition of sex discrimination”, H.R.Rep. No. 95-948, at 2 (1978), reprinted in 1978 U.S.C.C.A.N. 4749, 4752, and they *300expressly extend the protection of Title VII to conditions caused by pregnancy.
Disabilities caused or contributed to by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions, for all job related purposes, shall be treated the same as disabilities caused or contributed to by other medical conditions.... Written or unwritten employment policies and practices involving matters such as the commencement and duration of leave, the availability of extensions, the accrual of seniority and other benefits and privileges, reinstatement, and payment under any health or disability insurance or sick leave plan, formal or informal, shall be applied to disability due to pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions on the same terms and conditions as they are applied to other disabilities ____
29 C.F.R. § 1604.10(b). The guidelines also contain an interpretive question and answer section in which the following exchange is made:
Q: Must an employer hold open the job of an employee who is absent on leave because she is temporarily disabled by pregnancy-related conditions?
A: Unless the employee on leave has informed the employer that she does not intend to return to work, her job must be held open for her return on the same basis as jobs are held open for employees on sick or disability leave for other reasons.
29 C.F.R. pt. 1604, app. Question 9. The majority concludes that this means that Carnegie Center Associates (“Carnegie”) can terminate Rhett for her absence, even though it is caused by pregnancy, so long as Carnegie would have terminated an absent employee who was not pregnant. See Maj. Op. at 295-296.
However, the circumstances leading to Title VII’s current proscriptions against sex discrimination undermine the majority’s analysis. Title VII, as originally enacted, did not explicitly define sex discrimination to include disparate treatment based upon, or related to, pregnancy. As a result, some courts adopted a narrow view of the extent to which Title VII’s proscription against sexual discrimination included disparate treatment based upon pregnancy and related conditions. In General Electric v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125, 97 S.Ct. 401, 50 L.Ed.2d 343 (1976), the Supreme Court held that an insurance plan that excluded coverage for pregnancy-related disabilities did not constitute illegal gender-based discrimination. There, an employer’s disability plan provided coverage for nonoccupational sickness and accidents, but excluded coverage for pregnancy and pregnancy-related disabilities. The plan did, though, include coverage for nonoccupational disabilities and medical procedures common to men, e.g. prostatectomies, vasectomies and circumcisions. Gilbert, 429 U.S. at 145-46, 97 S.Ct. at 412-13. A group of employees sued under Title VII, alleging that the insurance plan was illegal sexual discrimination because it excluded a class of disabilities unique to women. The district court held that the plan did constitute illegal sex discrimination in violation of Title VII and the Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit affirmed. However, prior to the decision of the court of appeals, but subsequent to the decision of the district court, the Supreme Court decided Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U.S. 484, 94 S.Ct. 2485, 41 L.Ed.2d 256 (1974).
In Geduldig, the Supreme Court upheld the validity of a nearly identical insurance policy against an attack under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Court in Geduldig reasoned that the challenged policy was simply a business decision as to which risks an employer would insure. “The program divides potential recipients into two groups pregnant women and nonpregnant persons. While the first group is exclusively female, the second includes members of both sexes.” Geduldig, 417 U.S. at 496-97 n. 20, 94 S.Ct. at 2492 n. 20. The Court in Gilbert upheld the challenged disability plan based upon its earlier holding in Geduldig. The Court reasoned that, even though Geduldig was based upon an equal protection argument, and Gilbert was brought under Title VII, the logic of Geduldig still applied. Accordingly, the Court held that since there was no risk from which women were protected and men were not and no risk from which men were protected that women were not, the exclusion of pregnancy *301related disabilities did not invalidate the Gilbert policy under Title VII. The majority minimized the relevance of the EEOC guidelines when considering what Congress intended under Title VII.
Justice Brennan dissented, arguing that the Court’s analysis was “simplistic and misleading” because the plan included procedures that were specific to men while excluding pregnancy-related" procedures that were unique to women. 429 U.S. at 152, 97 S.Ct. at 416 (Brennan, J., dissenting). He noted that “pregnancy affords the only disability, sex specific, or otherwise, that is excluded from coverage.” Id. Accordingly, he did not think that the classification could be saved from a finding of illegal discrimination under Title VII merely because it was a “facially neutral classification.” Id. at 155, 97 S.Ct. at 417. He concluded that the Court erred in accepting the employer’s explanation that the plan merely excluded certain risks from coverage in a nondiscriminatory way. “[T]he demonstration of purposeful discrimination is not the only ground for recovery under Title VII____[A] prima facie violation of Title VII ... also is established by demonstrating that a facially neutral classification has the effect of discriminating against members of a defined class.” Id. at 153-55, 97 S.Ct. at 416-17.
According to Justice Brennan, “the determinative question must be whether the social policies and aims to be furthered by Title VII and filtered through the phrase ‘to discriminate’ contained in § 703(a)(1) fairly forbid an ultimate pattern of coverage that insures all risks except a commonplace one that is applicable to women but not to men.” Id. at 155, 97 S.Ct. at 418. He noted that the Court had previously recognized that ‘‘discrimination is a social phenomenon encased in a social context and therefore, unavoidably takes its meaning from the desired end products of the relevant legislative enactment, end products that may demand due consideration to the uniqueness of ‘disadvantaged’ individuals.” Id. at 159, 97 S.Ct. at 419. (discussing Lau v. Nichols, 414 U.S. 563, 94 S.Ct. 786, 39 L.Ed.2d 1 (1974)) (emphasis added). Justice Brennan concluded that the EEOC guidelines were “reasonable responses to the uniform testimony of governmental investigations which show that pregnancy exclusions built into disability programs both financially burden women workers and act to break down the continuity of the employment relationship, thereby exacerbating women’s comparatively transient role in the labor force.” Id. at 158, 97 S.Ct. at 419. Justice Brennan believed that the EEOC guidelines, “[i]n dictating pregnancy coverage under Title VII,” had “merely settled upon a solution now accepted by every other Western industrial country.” Id. (citing Dept. of Health, Education, and Welfare, Social Security Programs Throughout the World, (Research Project No. 40) pp. ix, xviii, xix (1971)).1 Congress reacted to Gilbert by enacting the Pregnancy Discrimination Act. See Newport News Shipbuilding and Dry Dock Co. v. EEOC, 462 U.S. 669, 678, 103 S.Ct. 2622, 2628, 77 L.Ed.2d 89 (1983). That act amended the “Definitions” section of Title VII in part as follows:
The terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the basis of sex’ include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions; and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes ... as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work....
42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k).
When Congress amended Title VII in 1978, it unambiguously expressed its disapproval of both the holding and the reasoning of the Court in the Gilbert decision____ The House Report stated, ‘It is the Committee^ view that the dissenting Justices correctly interpreted the Act.’ Similarly, the Senate Report quoted passages from the two dissenting opinions, stating that they ‘correctly express both the principle and the meaning of Title VII.’
*302Newport News, 462 U.S. at 678, 103 S.Ct. at 2628. (citing H.R.Rep. No. 95-948 and S.Rep. No. 95-331, at 2-3 (1977), U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News at 4750-51).
II. INTERPLAY OF THE PDA AND THE AMERICANS WITH DISABILITIES ACT (“ADA”)
The majority sums up its position as follows: “[t]he PDA merely requires that an employer treat a pregnant woman the same as any other temporarily disabled employee. In this regard we point out that it is not unlawful under the Americans with Disabilities Act for an employer when reducing its force to discharge an employee away from work by reason of a temporary disability.” Maj. Op. at 297. Thus, the majority equates pregnancy-related disability with temporary disabilities under the ADA, and that analogy drives the majority’s analysis.
I do not think that Rhett’s claim can be decided by simply stating that the PDA requires her to be treated the same as any other employee and reasoning that her position can be terminated because an absent nonpregnant employee could have his or her position terminated under the facts of this case. Although the ease law and EEOC guidelines refer to Title VII’s requirement that pregnant employees be treated the same as other employees, those cases usually involve determining whether employee benefits or insurance policies discriminate by excluding pregnant employees or affording them less protection than afforded nonpregnant employees. That was the issue in Gilbert and Newport News. For example, in Gilbert, Justice Brennan stated in his dissent: “A realistic understanding of conditions found in today’s labor environment warrants taking pregnancy into account in fashioning disability policies---- Contemporary disability programs are not creatures of a social or cultural vacuum devoid of stereotypes and signals concerning the pregnant woman employee.” 429 U.S. at 159-60, 97 S.Ct. at 419-20. The Court struck down the challenged health insurance policies in Newport News because they were the “mirror image of the plan at issue in Gilbert.” Newport News, 462 U.S. at 685, 103 S.Ct. at 2632. See also Arizona Governing Committee for Tax Deferred Annuity and Deferred Compensation Plans v. Norris, 463 U.S. 1073, 1074, 103 S.Ct. 3492, 3494, 77 L.Ed.2d 1236 (1983) (An employer who offers “its employees the option of receiving retirement benefits from one of several companies selected by the employer, all of which pay a woman lower monthly retirement benefits than a man who. has made the same contributions,” violates Title VII.).
Thus, in the health insurance and employee benefits context it is now clear that pregnancy-related conditions must be treated the same as conditions that are not pregnancy-related. However, a simple example demonstrates the danger of carrying that basic premise too far beyond the insurance or benefits context.
Historically, employers have been reluctant to hire women or have afforded women different conditions of employment because of a generalized belief that a female employee would likely leave her job to raise a family. Accordingly, there was a reluctance to devote resources to train or to teach them a job related skill.
I doubt that an employer is precluded from refusing to hire a male employee because of a reasonable belief that the potential employee will leave shortly after he is hired. However, I think few would argue that the same employer could refuse to hire a female job applicant out of a concern that she would soon become pregnant and leave her job to raise a family. Similarly, absent a contract provision to the contrary, an employer could terminate a male employee who missed two weeks of work during his first year on the job in violation of a policy prohibiting more than one week of sick leave during the employee’s first year on the job.2 However, I think it clear that the PDA would prohibit that same employer from terminating a female employee who missed the same two weeks because of pregnancy or a pregnancy-related condition. Those two employees can *303not be treated the same because Congress has already differentiated their situations by enacting the PDA. One can not avoid a claim of discrimination by treating persons who are not similarly situated the same. Yet, this is what the majority’s analysis does. The majority’s reasoning would allow an employer to terminate a female employee because she missed a crucial meeting with an important chent if a male employee would be terminated, even if the female missed the meeting because she was in labor delivering a baby, or suffering from a pregnancy-related condition. Although it may not be fair to terminate the male, it would not be illegal. It is illegal to terminate the female because of the PDA Cf. California Federal Savings and Loan v. Guerra, 479 U.S. 272, 292 n. 42, 107 S.Ct. 683, 695 n. 42, 93 L.Ed.2d 613 (1987) (“[W]e conclude that in enacting the PDA Congress did not intend to prohibit all favorable treatment of pregnancy----”).
The majority notes that pregnancy is a temporary condition that gives rise to a temporary disability. It argues that since the PDA bars discrimination based upon pregnancy, it merely requires that pregnant employees be treated the same as all other temporarily disabled employees, thereby limiting the comparison group for pregnant employees to nonpregnant employees who have suffered a temporary disability. The majority concludes that, despite her temporary disability due to pregnancy, Rhett can be terminated unless Carnegie would not terminate a male employee who was similarly “temporarily” disabled. See Maj. Op. at 297. That analysis rests upon equating a protected, but temporary, condition (pregnancy) with a temporary unprotected disability under the ADA. The ADA does not shield a non-pregnant employee from termination because temporary disabilities are excluded from the ADA. Regulations that were promulgated pursuant to the ADA define disability as:
(1) A physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more of the major life activities of such individual; (2) a record of such an impairment; or (3) being regarded as having such an impairment.
29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(g). “Substantially limits” is defined to mean:
(i) Unable to perform a major life activity that the average person in the general population can perform; or
(ii) Significantly restricted as to the condition, manner, or duration under which an individual can perform a particular major life activity as compared to the condition, manner, or duration under which the average person in the general population can perform that same major life activity.
§ 1630.2(j)(l). Several factors have been identified to assist in determining whether a particular “disability” is of such severity as to come within the protection intended under the ADA. These factors include:
(i) The nature and severity of the impairment;
(ii) The duration or expected duration of the impairment; and
(iii) The permanent or long term impact, or the expected permanent or long term impact of or resulting from the impairment.
§ 1630.2(j)(2). “Disabilities” that are temporary do not, by definition, rise to the level of substantially limiting a major life function. See Rogers v. International Marine Terminals, Inc., 87 F.3d 755, 758 (5th Cir.1996) (“[Tjemporary conditions that are not chronic usually do not rise to the level of a ‘disability.’ ”) and (Taylor v. Dover Elevator Systems, Inc., 917 F.Supp. 455, 461 (N.D.Miss.1996)) (“[TJemporary injuries with no permanent effects are ordinarily not considered disabilities under the ADA”) (citing Evans v. City of Dallas, 861 F.2d 846, 852-53 (5th Cir.1988); Rakestraw v. Carpenter Co., 898 F.Supp. 386, 390 (N.D.Miss.1995); Oswalt v. Sara Lee Corp., 889 F.Supp. 253, 257 (N.D.Miss.1995), aff'd, 74 F.3d 91 (5th Cir.1996)).
However, just as temporary disabilities are excluded from the protections of the ADA by definition, temporary pregnancy-related conditions are explicitly covered by Title VII’s prohibition against sex discrimination under the PDA. Accordingly, the protection afforded pregnancy-related conditions can not be equated with that afforded temporary disabilities merely because pregnancy is tempo*304rary. To do so under the facts of this case is contrary to the mandate of the statute, effectively amends the PDA and forces Rhett to rely upon the ADA which provides no protection for pregnancy related conditions because of their temporary nature.
The majority relies on Rogers and Sanders v. Arneson Prods., Inc., 91 F.3d 1351, 1354 (9th Cir.1996), cert. denied, - U.S. -, 117 S.Ct. 1247, 137 L.Ed.2d 329 (1997), to substantiate its claim that the temporarily disabled employee resides outside of statutory protection' — regardless of whether the temporary disability is due to pregnancy. See Maj. Op. at 297. In Rogers, an employee (“Rogers”) sued under the ADA when he was laid off pursuant to a reduction in force (“RIF ”). Rogers had been absent because of health problems related to an ankle surgery. The court held that Rogers was not protected by the ADA because he was not “disabled” within the meaning of the statute. “In sum, Rogers’ ankle afflictions were temporary and did not constitute a permanent disability____ The EEOC regulations concur, that ‘temporary, non-chronic impairments of short duration, with little or no long term or permanent impact, are usually not disabilities.’” 87 F.3d at 759 (quoting 29 C.F.R. § 1630.2(j) (Appendix)). However, the fact that they are not “disabilities” under the ADA does not mean that they are not protected under the PDA, if they are pregnancy-related.
Similarly, in Sanders, employee Sidney Sanders (“Sanders”) was terminated while on leave for a cancer related psychological disorder. While he was away other employees assumed his responsibilities and employer Anreson Products decided to replace Sanders rather than allow him to return at the end of his sick leave. Although Sanders suffered from cancer, he conceded that his absence was related only to his psychological disorder that was temporary. Accordingly, the court framed the issue before it as “whether Sanders’ temporary psychological impairment qualifies as a disability under the ADA.” Id. at 1353. The court held that it did not because that impairment did not “substantially limit” a major life function. Id.
If Congress intended to equate pregnancy with a temporary disability under the ADA, it afforded pregnant women precious little protection when it enacted the PDA. Pregnancy is by its nature temporary. Holding that it is therefore the equivalent of a “temporary disability” is hardly consistent with “the social policies and aims to be furthered by Title VII and filtered through the phrase ‘to discriminate’ contained in [that Act]” Gilbert, 429 U.S. at 155, 97 S.Ct. at 418 (Brennan, J., dissenting). Accordingly, we can only give effect to the intent behind this statute by viewing the term “temporarily disabled” as it applies to pregnancy as referring to the duration of the disability, not to the quality of it.
The majority also relies upon Troupe v. May Dept. Stores Co., 20 F.3d 734, 738 (7th Cir.1994). However, I am not persuaded by the reasoning of Troupe and believe that we should be guided instead by Smith v. F.W. Morse & Co., Inc., 76 F.3d 413 (1st Cir.1996).
III. TROUPE v. MAY DEP’T STORES CO.
In Troupe, pregnant employee Kimberly Hern Troupe was fired from a Lord & Taylor department store for tardiness due to pregnancy. Troupe sued her employer, May Department Stores (doing business as Lord & Taylor), alleging illegal sex discrimination under Title VII. The district court granted Lord & Taylor’s motion for summary judgment and Troupe appealed. On appeal, the Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit affirmed, noting that “[t]he great, the undeniable fact is the plaintiffs tardiness.” Id. at 737. The court analogized the plaintiffs plight to that of a hypothetical Black employee who is fired after a kidney transplant because the employer either wants to avoid paying the employee while on sick leave or doubts that the employee will return. The court reasoned that, infiring the Black employee, the employer may be breaking a contract, but it would not be violating Title VII’s protections against racial discrimination as long as the employer would also fire a similarly situated White employee.3 Id. at 738. *305The failure of the Troupe analogy, however, is that absence from work is not endemic to a protected racial trait. Absence is, however, endemic to “pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions.” § 2000e(k). Indeed, the historical underpinnings of Title VII suggest that it was the fear that women would get pregnant and be absent from their jobs that was, at least in part, responsible for the longstanding discrimination against women (especially younger women) in the workplace.
As noted above, employers have assumed that female employees may become pregnant and that pregnancy would make them unavailable for work. See Gilbert, 429 U.S. at 150 n. 1, 97 S.Ct. at 415 n. 1 (Brennan, J., dissenting) (“General Electric’s disability program was developed in an earlier era when women openly were presumed to play only a minor and temporary role in the labor force. As originally conceived in 1926, General Electric offered no benefit plan to its female employees because “women did not recognize the responsibilities in life, for they were probably hoping to get married soon and leave the company.’ ”) (quoting D. Loth, Swope, G.E.: Story of Gerard Swope and General Electric in American Business (1958)). Yet, here the majority finds that “[i]t is not a violation of the PDA for an employer to consider an employee’s absence on maternity leave in making an adverse employment decision if it also would have considered the absence of an employee on a different type of disability leave in the same way.” Maj. Op. at 299. This is a simplistic interpretation of the PDA and the EEOC guidelines. In a different Title VII context, the Supreme Court noted that interpreting the prohibitions of Title VII to only prohibit overt intentional discrimination would leave employers free to enact facially neutral policies based on factors that were a proxy for race and thereby circumvent Title VIPs protection. See Griggs v. Duke Power, 401 U.S. 424, 430, 91 S.Ct. 849, 853, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971). The approach taken in Troupe, under the PDA, and adopted by the majority here, suffers from the same infirmity.
It is jurisprudential sleight of hand to suggest that the PDA does not require that pregnant women be treated better than their male counterpart. That is a misleading statement of the issue. Thus, the court in Troupe misses the analytical mark when it states that “[ejmployers can treat pregnant women as badly as they treat similarly affected but nonpregnant employees,” 20 F.3d at 738, unless it defines “similarly affected” employees as other employees having a protected trait that is endemic to the behavior at issue. However, Troupe fails to do so and assumes that the pregnant employee is the “equal” of her nonpregnant coworker. Similarly, the majority erroneously concludes that “the PDA does not require that employers treat pregnant employees better than other temporarily disabled employees.” See Maj. Op. at 296.
Relying upon Hazen Paper Company v. Biggins, 507 U.S. 604, 113 S.Ct. 1701, 123 L.Ed.2d 338 (1993), the majority states that “[t]he Supreme Court has held that under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act an employer must ignore an employee’s age in certain employment decisions, but not any other characteristics such as pension expense.” Maj. Op. at 296. However, I believe that Hazen Paper requires that we reject Troupe. In Hazen Paper, a 62 year old employee sued his employer, alleging that he had been terminated based upon age discrimination, in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. § 626, and the Employment Retirement Income Security Act (“ERISA”), 29 U.S.C. § 1140. A jury found for the employee on both claims, and the employee appealed. The Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed, relying heavily on evidence that the plaintiff had been fired in order to prevent his pension from vesting. The court determined that the jury could have concluded that “age was inextricably intertwined with *306the decision to fire[the plaintiff]. If it were not for [his] age ... his pension rights would not have been within a hairbreadth of vesting,” 953 F.2d 1405, 1412 (1st Cir.1992), and he would not have been fired. The Supreme Court reversed as to the ADEA claim. The court reasoned that firing an older employee to prevent pension benefits from vesting based on years of service does not amount to “willful” age discrimination under the ADEA. 507 U.S. at 608, 113 S.Ct. at 1705. The Court stated, “[W]e now clarify that there is no disparate treatment under the ADEA when the factor motivating the employer is some feature other than the employee’s age.” Id. at 609, 113 S.Ct. at 1705. The case before it was a disparate treatment case and the Court concluded that “a disparate treatment claim cannot succeed unless the employee’s protected trait actually played a role in that process and had a determinative influence on the outcome.” Id. at 610, 113 S.Ct. at 1706.
Disparate treatment, thus defined, captures the essence of what Congress sought to prohibit in the ADEA. It is the very essence of age discrimination for an older employee to be fired because the employer believes that productivity and competence decline with old age____
Thus the ADEA commands that ‘employers are to evaluate [older] employees ... on their merits and not their age.’ The employer cannot rely on age as a proxy for an employee’s remaining characteristics, such as productivity, but must instead focus on those factors directly.
When the employer’s decision is wholly motivated by factors other than age, the problem of inaccurate and stigmatizing stereotypes disappears. This is true even if the motivating factor is correlated with age, as pension status typically is____ Because age and years of service are analytically distinct, an employer can take account of one while ignoring the other, and thus it is incorrect to say that a decision based on years of service is necessarily ‘age based.’
507 U.S. at 610-11, 113 S.Ct. at 1706-07.
Pregnancy and absence are not, however, analytically distinct, and an employer can not punish for the absence occasioned by pregnancy under Title VII. As noted above, that statute states that it is an unlawful employment practice to “discharge any individual ... or otherwise discriminate ... because ... of sex,” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a)(l), and, after the PDA, that includes discrimination “on the basis of pregnancy ... or related medical conditions.” 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k). That protection is meaningless unless it is intended to extend to the “temporary” absence from employment that is unavoidable in most pregnancies. Thus, the absence endemic to pregnancy, unlike factors that may sometimes be a proxy for age, has to be protected under the facts of this case. In Hazen Paper, it was the employee’s years of service, not his age, that occasioned the vesting of his pension. The Court was very careful to note that
[W]e do not consider the special case where an employee is about to vest ... as a result of his age, rather than years of service, and the employer fires the employee in order to prevent vesting. That case is not presented here. Our holding is simply that an employer does not violate the ADEA just by interfering with an older employee’s pension benefits that would have vested by virtue of years of service.
507 U.S. at 613, 113 S.Ct. at 1707-08. I believe that Rhett’s situation under the PDA is much closer to the situation of an employee whose pension is vesting because of age than to the plight of the plaintiff in Hazen Paper. Accordingly, the holding in Hazen Paper does not assist the majority nearly as much as first appears.4
*307“[I]n using the broad phrase “women affected by pregnancy, childbirth and related medical conditions,’ the [PDA] makes clear that its protection extends to the whole range of matters concerning the childbearing process.” H.R. Rep. 95-948, U.S. Code Cong. & Admin. News at 4749 (emphasis added). The holding in Troupe, and the majority’s holding here, remove a substantial portion of the protection Congress intended. Troupe’s position was terminated because of conditions related to pregnancy (tardiness occasioned by her morning sickness). I do not understand, therefore, why she was not terminated “because of ... her pregnancy,” § 2000e(k), in violation of Title VII.
I believe that we should reject the holding in Troupe, and adopt instead the analysis set forth in Smith, 76 F.3d 413. There, a female employee (“Smith”) worked for a small company that was undergoing restructuring. She informed the owner of the company that she was pregnant and would be taking maternity leave. Although the company had no maternity leave policy, Smith was assured that her job was secure and the company would simply divide her duties amongst its remaining employees in her absence. The company made this commitment even though it expected her absence to cause “the sky to fall.” Id. at 418. The company also held regular “reality check” meetings in the hope that they could minimize the impact of the absence of such a key employee. However, to the company’s great surprise the sky did not fall. In fact, “the plant functioned very well,” id. at 419, in Smith’s absence. Soon after Smith gave birth, she informed the general manager, Maryann Guimond, that she wished to return to work a week earlier than planned. At that time, Guimond made inquiries of Smith and Smith’s sister (who also worked for the company) regarding Smith’s plans to have children in the future. Days later, Guimond determined that Smith’s position was superfluous and eliminated it. Smith’s duties were then given to another employee who had been functioning as the operations manager.
Smith sued, alleging, among other things, violation of Title VII. The Title VII claim was decided in a bench trial in the district court, and that court entered judgment for the employer as a matter of law. Smith appealed, and the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed. Smith argued that the company had violated Title VII because her absence on pregnancy leave afforded the company the opportunity to learn that it could afford to eliminate her position. The court disagreed because it concluded that the employer would have eliminated the position regardless of Smith’s pregnancy, and agreed with the employer’s argument that “even if Smith had not been on maternity leave she would have been flattened by the downsizing steamroller.” Id. at 419. The court reasoned that
“[T]here is little doubt that an employer, consistent with its business judgment, may eliminate positions during the course of a downsizing without violating Title VII even though these positions are held by members of protected groups (pregnant women included)” (citing LeBlanc v. Great Am. Ins. Co., 6 F.3d 836, 844-45 (1st Cir.1993), cert. denied, 511 U.S. 1018, 114 S.Ct. 1398, 128 L.Ed.2d 72 (1994); Goldman v. First Nat’l Bank, 985 F.2d 1113, 1118-19 (1st Cir.1993); Montana v. First Fed. Sav. & Loan Ass’n, 869 F.2d 100, 105, 107 (2d Cir.1989); Dister v. Continental Group, Inc., 859 F.2d 1108-1115 (2d Cir.1988); Pearlstein v. Staten Island Univ. Hosp., 886 F.Supp. 260, 268-69 (E.D.N.Y.1995))____ [T]he flip side of the coin, however, is that an employer who selectively cleans house cannot hide behind convenient euphemisms such as “downsizing” or “streamlining.” Whether or not trimming the fat from a company’s organizational chart is a prudent practice in a particular business environment, the employer’s decision to eliminate specific positions must not be tainted by a discriminatory animus.
Id. at 422 (citing Goldman, 985 F.2d at 1118 n. 4; Maresco v. Evans Chemetics, 964 F.2d 106, 111 (2d Cir.1992); Mesnick, 950 F.2d at *308825; Pearlstein, 886 F.Supp. at 268-69.). The court held that the “employer may discharge an employee while she is on a pregnancy-induced leave so long as it does so for legitimate reasons unrelated to her gravidity.” Id. at 424. Smith’s employer had selected her merely because it realized that her position was not nearly as valuable as her supervisors previously believed. The fact that her absence on maternity leave afforded the employer an opportunity to learn just how expendable her position was did not mean that she was terminated “because of her pregnancy.”
However, and most significantly for purposes of our analysis, the court also stated:
Title VII mandates that an employer must put an employee’s pregnancy (including her departure on maternity leave) to one side in making its employment decisions— but the statute does not command that an employer bury its head in the sand and struthiously refrain from implementing business judgments simply because they affect a parturient employee.
Id. at 424 (citing Troupe, 20 F.3d at 738) (emphasis added). The court added that “[a]t bottom, Title VII requires a causal nexus between the employer’s state of mind and the protected trait (here, pregnancy).” Id. at 425. In Smith, the nexus did not exist because the decision to eliminate the employee’s job was based upon the importance (or lack thereof) of the job. Here, however, the decision to eliminate Rhett’s job was based solely upon her pregnancy related absence. That causal nexis runs afoul of Title VII’s prohibition of sex discrimination.
Carnegie clearly did not put Rhett’s departure on maternity leave to one side when deciding to terminate her. Rhett’s absence from work was so inextricably intertwined with pregnancy, her protected trait, as to make the two inseparable. In its “theory of transitivity,” the majority separates the events in this case into discrete entities that suggest the causal relationship between Rhett’s pregnancy and her termination. The majority too easily rejects this position. See Maj. Op. at 296 (“This view eliminates Rhett’s theory of transitivity, that if A (termination) is caused by B (absence) which is caused by C (pregnancy), then C causes A.”).
IV. TERMINATION BECAUSE OF PREGNANCY
An employer can not insulate itself from the reach of Title VII by an action that appears neutral, yet has the functional effect of disparately treating an individual based upon a protected trait. See Griggs, 401 U.S. at 430, 91 S.Ct. at 853. Carnegie’s action is the functional equivalent of terminating Rhett because she was pregnant. See Teahan v. Metro-North Commuter R.R. Co., 951 F.2d 511 (2d Cir.1991).
In Teahan, an employee suffering from alcoholism brought an action against his employer alleging that his discharge for excessive absenteeism was in violation of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, 29 U.S.C. § 794, because his absences had been caused by that disease. Summary judgment was entered in favor of the employer because the district court concluded that there was no issue of material fact as to whether Teahan “was terminated ‘solely by reason of his handicap.” Id. at 514. The district court concluded that the employer “had not relied on Teahan’s handicap ... [and had] a nondiscriminatory reason for firing him (excessive absenteeism).” Id. Teahan appealed.
On appeal, Teahan argued that “because the ground upon which he was terminated was his excessive absenteeism, and since his absenteeism was ‘caused by’ his substance abuse problem, the district court improperly shifted the burden to him to present evidence of pretext.” Id. The Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit agreed, stating that “it does not inevitably follow that termination for conduct resulting from a handicap is not termination ‘solely by reason of that handicap.”5 Id. at 515. Indeed, “an employer *309‘relies’ on a handicap when it justifies [its employment decision] based on conduct caused by that handicap.”6 Id. Because the district court erred in concluding that Teahan had not established that he was fired “solely by reason of his handicap,” his employer never had to satisfy its burden of “demonstrating that[Teahan’s handicap] was relevant to the job qualifications.” Id. at 515. Accordingly, the court remanded the case for further proceedings.7 Similarly, in Cushing v. Moore, 970 F.2d 1103, 1108 (2nd Cir.1992), the court stated that “the key determination becomes the factual issue of whether an employee’s conduct (such as absenteeism), which forms the articulated basis for a job termination, is actually caused by a handicap (such as substance abuse)” (citing Teahan, 951 F.2d at 517; Hogarth v. Thornburgh, 833 F.Supp. 1077, 1085 (S.D.N.Y.1993)) (“[I]f a handicap manifests itself in certain behavior, and an employee is discharged because of that behavior, he has been terminated ‘solely by reason of the handicap.”); and Ambrosino v. Metropolitan Life Insur. Co., 899 F.Supp. 438, 444 (N.D.Cal.1995) (The court chose to follow the line of cases holding that “termination based on conduct caused by chemical dependency and status which results from the dependency and/or the conduct caused by the dependency is termination based on the disability of chemical dependency.”). However, that consideration is not present here, and I believe that this matter should be remanded for a determination of whether Rhett would have been selected for termination based upon factors other than her absence. Although it is for the employer, and not a court, to determine how best to select those positions that will be eliminated in a reduction in force, Title VII requires this employer to adopt criteria that put Rhett’s pregnancy-related absence aside and allow for an individualized determination driven by her own capabilities.
V. CONCLUSION
For the reasons stated above, I would reverse the decision of the district court and remand this matter to the bankruptcy court for a determination of whether Rhett would have been terminated had her pregnancy-related absence been put aside.

. Justice Stevens also dissented, but his analysis was based upon the policies in question treating the risk of absenteeism caused by pregnancy differently than any other kind of absence. Id. at 161, 97 S.Ct. at 420-21.

. As I discuss below, if the employee’s condition was “temporary” he would not be covered by the Americans with Disabilities Act and could be terminated absent a contract that prevented such an action on the part of the employer.

. The Seventh Circuit notes that "[e]mp!oyers can treat pregnant women as badly as they treat *305nonpregnant employees, even to the point of 'conditioning the availability of an employment benefit on an employee’s decision to return to work after the end of the medical disability that pregnancy causes.’" Troupe, 20 F.3d at 738 (quoting Maganuco v. Leyden Community High School Dist. 212, 939 F.2d 440, 445 (7th Cir.1991).) In treating pregnant women as badly as other nonpregnant employees, an employer cannot, however, impose policies that disparately impact pregnant women because of their pregnancy. See Maganuco, 939 F.2d at 445.

. I do not mean to suggest by this that the PDA requires an employer to necessarily take affirmative steps to make it easier for a pregnant employee to work. See Troupe, 20 F.3d at 738 ("The Pregnancy Discrimination Act does not ... require employers to ... take ... steps to make it easier for pregnant women to work.”). The PDA does not provide for accommodation as does the ADA.
Nor do I suggest that an employee who is pregnant can not be fired for reasons that are not occasioned by pregnancy. For example, if Carnegie decided, in good faith, to eliminate everyone with a certain salary grade based upon its business judgment, Rhett could be terminated if *307she was at that salary grade whether she was on pregnancy leave or not because the termination would not be based upon a factor endemic to her pregnancy.

. The "solely by reason of” inquiry, the court explained, is "designed to weed out [ ] claims where an employer can point to conduct or circumstances that are causally unrelated to the plaintiff's handicap.” Id. at 516 (emphasis added). In the context of the PDA, the analogue is the "because of or on the basis of pregnancy” inquiry.
The court accepted that the plaintiff's excessive absences were "caused by” his alcoholism be*309cause its review on appeal required that it examine all facts in the light most favorable to Teahan. The court recognized, however, that "the causal connection between absenteeism and alcoholism is ordinarily a question of fact.” Teahan, 951 F.2d at 515.

. Under the Rehabilitation Act, “[t]he question then becomes whether the employee is qualified despite his or her handicap to perform the essential functions of the job.” Id. The employer bears that burden: ”[A]fter complainant proves a prima facie case, the employer is required to rebut the inference that the handicap was improperly considered by first demonstrating that it was relevant to the job qualifications.” Id. at 515.

. Other courts of appeals have refused to adopt Teahan's rationale. See e.g., Williams v. Widnall, 79 F.3d 1003 (10th Cir.1996); Maddox v. University of Tennessee, 62 F.3d 843 (6th Cir.1995). However, in all cases, the employee had exhibited either egregious or criminal conduct. See e.g., Maddox, 62 F.3d at 845 (assistant coach at University of Tennessee fired because of the bad publicity that the university was subjected to after he was arrested for DUI). Because of the nature of the conduct involved, these courts were unwilling to "adopt an interpretation of the [Rehabilitation Act] which would require an employer to accept egregious behavior by [a disabled employee] when that same behavior, exhibited by a nondisabled employee, would require termination.” Williams, 79 F.3d at 1007. Thus, “[a]t first blush, it may appear that the Second Circuit is out of synchronization with the others. However, distinction lies in the categorization of the conduct____ [In the cases rejecting Teahan,] the conduct [at issue] is ... misconduct.” Taylor, 917 F.Supp. at 462 (emphasis added). Rhett’s case does not implicate the concerns of those courts that have rejected Teahan.