Court Opinion

ID: 9495848
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 16:11:37.36537+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:57:13.721063
License: Public Domain

DENNIS, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I join fully in the per curiam opinion as a correct disposition in accord with our precedents. I write separately only to urge that the en banc court should reconsider our rule that “only an ‘ultimate employment decision’ by an employer can form the basis for liability for retaliation under Title VII.” Opinion at 531 (citing Mattern v. Eastman Kodak Co., 104 F.3d 702 (5th Cir.1997)). This rule is inimical to both the text and the purpose of the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3(a). See Mattern, 104 F.3d at 710 (Dennis, J., dissenting). A majority of the federal circuits that have considered the question have held that the protection afforded by the anti-retaliation provision extends to adverse employment actions that, while substantial, fall short of ultimate employment decisions. See Von Gunten v. Maryland, 243 F.3d 858, 865 (4th Cir.2001); Wideman v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 141 F.3d 1453, 1456 (11th Cir.1998); Knox v. Indiana, 93 F.3d 1327, 1334 (7th Cir.1996); Berry v. Stevinson Chevrolet, 74 F.3d 980, 984-86 (10th Cir. 1996); Wyatt v. City of Boston, 35 F.3d 13, 15-16 (1st Cir.1994); Yartzoff v. Thomas, 809 F.2d 1371, 1375 (9th Cir.1987). Indeed, the only other circuit that purports to follow the “ultimate employment decision” rule, the Eighth Circuit, in practice applies something broader. See e.g., Manning v. Metro. Life Ins. Co., 127 F.3d 686, 692 (8th Cir.1997) (defining ultimate employment decision to include a “tangible change in duties or working conditions that constituted a material employment disadvantage”).