University Of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar

Facts

D is an academic institution within the University of Texas system. D specializes in medical education. D has affiliated itself with a number of healthcare facilities including, as relevant in this case, Parkland Memorial Hospital (Hospital). Hospital permits D’s students to gain clinical experience working in its facilities. The agreement also requires the Hospital to offer empty staff physician posts to D’s faculty members. P is a medical doctor of Middle Eastern descent. In 1995, he was hired to work both as a member of D’s faculty and as a staff physician at the Hospital. He left both positions in 1998 for additional medical education and then returned in 2001 as an assistant professor at D and, once again, as a physician at the Hospital. In 2004, Dr. Beth Levine was hired and became P’s ultimate (though not direct) superior. P alleged that Dr. Levine was biased against him on account of his religion and ethnic heritage, a bias manifested by undeserved scrutiny of his billing practices and productivity, as well as comments that “‘Middle Easterners are lazy.’” P met with Dr. Gregory Fitz, the University’s Chair of Internal Medicine and Levine’s supervisor, to complain about Dr. Levine’s alleged harassment. Despite obtaining a promotion with Dr. Levine’s assistance in 2006, P continued to believe that she was biased against him. P tried to arrange to continue working at the Hospital without also being on D’s faculty. Preliminary negotiations with the Hospital suggested this might be possible. P resigned from his teaching post in July 2006 and sent a letter to Dr. Fitz (among others), in which he stated that the reason for his departure was harassment by Dr. Levine. That harassment, he asserted, “‘stems from . . . religious, racial and cultural bias against Arabs and Muslims.’”Dr. Fitz expressed consternation saying that Dr. Levine had been “publicly humiliated by the letter” and that it was “very important that she be publicly exonerated.” The Hospital had offered P a job as a staff physician. On learning of that offer, Dr. Fitz protested asserting that the offer was inconsistent with the affiliation agreement’s requirement that all staff physicians also be members of the University faculty. The Hospital then withdrew its offer. P filed this Title VII suit alleging status-based discrimination claim under § 2000e-2(a). P alleged that Dr. Levine’s racially and religiously motivated harassment had resulted in his constructive discharge from the University. P’s second claim was that Dr. Fitz’s efforts to prevent the Hospital from hiring him were in retaliation for complaining about Dr. Levine’s harassment, in violation of § 2000e-3(a). The jury found for P on both claims. It awarded him over $400,000 in backpay and more than $3 million in compensatory damages. The District Court later reduced the compensatory damages award to $300,000. The Court of Appeals affirmed in part and vacated in part. It concluded that P had submitted insufficient evidence in support of his constructive-discharge claim, so it vacated that portion of the jury’s verdict. The court affirmed the retaliation finding, however, on the theory that retaliation claims brought under § 2000e-3(a)-like claims of status-based discrimination under § 2000e-2(a)-require only a showing that retaliation was a motivating factor for the adverse employment action, rather than its but-for cause. D appealed. 

Issues

Rule of Law

Holding and Decision

Legal Analysis

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