1
Chapter 33
Equal Opportunity in Employment
VI. Answers to Critical Legal Thinking Cases
33.1 Sexual Harassment
Yes, an employer can be held liable when the sexual harassment conduct of its employees is so severe
that the victim of the harassment resigns. The U.S. Supreme Court stated, “To establish hostile work
environment, plaintiffs like Suders must show harassing behavior sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter
the conditions of their employment.” The very fact that the discriminatory conduct was so severe or
pervasive that it created a work environment abusive to employees because of their gender offends Title
33.2 Sexual Harassment
Teresa Harris wins. When the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and
insult that are sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim’s employment and
create an abusive working environment, Title VII is violated. A discriminatorily abusive work
environment, even one that does not seriously affect employees’ psychological well-being, can and often
will detract from employees’ job performance, discourage employees from remaining on the job, or keep
33.3 National Origin Discrimination
her one face-to-face meeting with Mr. Negre, he specifically stated that he did not like her accent. It is a
statement by the president of the company who himself made the decision to terminate Ms. Rivera. Mr.
Negre’s criticism of Ms. Rivera’s accent, his statement that he did not want Hispanic sales employees,
and the fact that two Hispanic sales representatives were discharged while the non-Hispanic salesperson
2
Lexis 9099 (United States District Court for the Southern District of New York)
33.4 Bona Fide Occupational Qualification (BFOQ)
sex.” The Supreme Court stated that it had no difficulty concluding that Johnson Controls could not
establish a BFOQ, stating, “We have no difficulty concluding that Johnson Controls cannot establish a
BFOQ. Fertile women, as far as appears in the record, participate in the manufacture of batteries as
efficiently as anyone else. Johnson Controls’ professed moral and ethical concerns about the welfare of
the United States)
33.5 Religious Discrimination
No, TWA is not liable for religious discrimination in violation of Title VII. The Supreme Court held that
the court held that this would cause an undue hardship on TWA by requiring it to hire and train a
part-time employee to work Saturdays only or to incur the additional cost of paying overtime wages to a
VII. Answers to Ethics Cases
33.6 Ethics Case
held that a strength test should be given to establish strength, rather than using height and weight, for
which there was no correlation proven. Regarding this rule, the state could be cited as acting unethically
because it knew that the rule would eliminate a substantial number of females from the position.
However, the state may have thought that size and weight correlated with strength and did not have an
3
33.7 Ethics Case
game has been shot-making—using clubs to cause a ball to progress from the teeing ground to a hole
some distance away with as few strokes as possible.” The Supreme Court continued, “The force of
petitioner PGA Tour’s argument is, first of all, mitigated by the fact that golf is a game in which it is
impossible to guarantee that all competitors will play under exactly the same conditions or that an
Casey Martin, a disabled professional golfer, by allowing him to use golf carts while competing in PGA-
sponsored professional golf tournaments. It would seem that the PGA did not have unethical motives