Precedent Against Frivolous Discrimination Cases

In most places an employer can hire or fire an employee “at will,” which means for any reason or even no reason at all.  Jobs with private businesses are not entitlements, and fired employees do not have a valid legal grievance just because they were fired.  Instead, employment by a private company is like an invitation to be on private property, which can be revoked by the owner at any time without even giving a reason.

But there are laws prohibiting firing an employee based on discrimination, and that has led to a cottage industry of lawsuits against employers.  The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit recently considered whether firing a woman for her hairstyle, in this case the wearing of dreadlocks, might constitute discrimination.

The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or EEOC, had filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Chastity Jones, after she lost a job opportunity from Catastrophe Management Solutions (CMS) based on her unwillingness to remove the dreadlocks in her hair.  The EEOC asserted on her behalf that dreadlocks are physiologically and culturally associated with African Americans, and that hairstyles can be part of racial identity.  Under the view of the EEOC, it should be unlawful discrimination to fire someone based on this hairstyle.

Not so, the Court of Appeals held.  “As far as we can tell,” the Eleventh Circuit explained, “every court to have considered the issue has rejected the argument that Title VII protects hairstyles culturally associated with race.”  The Court conceded that hairstyle may be part of culture, but courts are not the proper place to arbitrate cultural standards.  Instead, it is up to democratically elected legislators to decide what qualifies as racial discrimination.  

As the Court explained, “Ms. Jones told CMS that she would not cut her dreadlocks in order to secure a job, and we respect that intensely personal decision and all it entails.  But, for the reasons we have set out, the EEOC’s original…complaint did not state a plausible claim that CMS intentionally discriminated against Ms. Jones because of her race.”  The court thereby unanimously rejected the lawsuit that the EEOC had filed against the employer, and we applaud this a victory against frivolous discrimination cases.

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