Who’s behind this decision? Supreme Court looks at discriminatory bias in termination

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Abstract: Can an employer be held liable for the discriminatory bias of supervisors who influenced an adverse employment decision — even if those supervisors didn’t make the ultimate adverse decision? This was a question that rose all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court in a case in which an Army Reservist sued his employer under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (USERRA). This article explains the Court’s decision, while a sidebar explains why an appeals court had earlier come to a different conclusion. Staub v. Proctor Hospital, No. 09-400, March 1, 2011 (Supreme Court)