Court Opinion

ID: 9464332
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 23:30:56.581213+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:38:34.885635
License: Public Domain

MILLER, Judge,
concurring.
I fully concur in the result reached by Judge Bright. However, the dissenting opinion points up the problem I have in premising the decision on denial of procedural due process, namely: whether this issue is fairly raised, even indirectly, on this appeal. If it is, Judge Bright’s disposition of the issue is eminently perceptive and correct.
I am satisfied that the decision can properly rest on invidious (termination of employment) discrimination by reason of sex, contrary to the Fourteenth Amendment. The Board of Education’s standard of “morality” is undefined, and, granted that there is a rational connection between a teacher’s unwed pregnancy and the Board’s interest in conserving marital values before the students, the standard does not appear to have been uniformly applied. Thus, the Assistant Superintendent, Dr. Anderson, testified that the School District of Omaha has hired as teachers women who have had pregnancies and children ,out of wedlock and has retained women employees who have become pregnant out of wedlock. Appellant’s evidence shows that the Board has never terminated the employment of any male single teacher because of putative fatherhood, so that the brunt of the undefined “morality” standard’s application appears to fall on the female gender. See Jacobs v. Martin Sweets Co., 550 F.2d 364 (6th Cir. 1977).
*594Moreover, I am persuaded that the “business necessity” of the Board5 to conserve marital values before the students could have been accomplished just as well by action other than termination of employment, such as: (1) requesting Brown to take maternity leave; (2) asking Brown to get married; or (3) transferring Brown to a non-teaching position (Dr. Anderson testified that staff members with no direct personal contact with the students do not “have an impact upon the youngsters developing their value judgments”). Evidence of the Board’s failure to pursue such reasonable alternatives because of Brown’s unwed pregnancy establishes a prima facie case of sex discrimination. Robinson v. Lorillard Corp., 444 F.2d 791, 798 (4th Cir.), cert. dismissed, 404 U.S. 1006, 92 S.Ct. 573, 30 L.Ed.2d 655 (1971).6

. See Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 431, 91 S.Ct. 849, 853, 28 L.Ed.2d 158, 164 (1971); Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U.S. 542, 544, 91 S.Ct. 496, 498, 27 L.Ed.2d 613, 615 (1971).

. Although Lorillard was a racial discrimination case, its reasoning is clearly applicable to a sex discrimination case.