Tagged: employment discriminaiton

“[E]vidence of employer dishonesty is not required by Title VII itself. The statute requires only that a plaintiff demonstrate that her employer’s decision was taken ‘because of race, sex or some other prohibited characteristic.’ In spite of using some language suggesting that dishonesty is an element of a discrimination claim, the Supreme Court has never held that evidence of mendacity is the only form of proof available to a Title VII plaintiff. In fact, in one of its more recent opinions construing Title VII, the Court noted that evidence suggesting a defendant’s explanation for an employment practice is ‘unworthy of credence is simply one form of circumstantial evidence that is probative of intentional discrimination.’ As the Court recognized, a plaintiff does not have to prove that her employer lied in order to raise a reasonable inference that discrimination played a role in the decision.”

Source: William R. Corbett, Unmasking A Pretext For Res Ipsa Loquittur: A Proposal To Let Employment Discrimination Speak For Itself. 62 Am. U. L. Rev. 447, 451 2013.