Bona Fide Occupational Qualification Case Study

The influx of inmates in the late 1970s through 1980s led to unsustainable prions condition that violated inmate’s rights granted by the Eight Amendment. As the budgets were being exhausted, transpired the issues of inmate’s poor medical treatment, abusive physical security, and unsuitable physical conditions (Newman and Scott 2013, 547). In the 1976 case of Estelle v. Gamble, the Supreme Court of the United States “established that an inmate's Eighth Amendment rights were violated if prison personnel demonstrated “deliberate indifference” to a prisoner's “serious illness or injury” (Newsman and Scott 2012, 548). The increased volume of filed lawsuits led to the passing of the Prison Litigation Reform Act, which “ targeted frivolous lawsuits by limiting waivers for the requirement that inmates pay filing fees,

In Alabama in the early 1970’s, there was a height and weight limitation, in order to be considered as a candidate for becoming a prison guard. The restrictions were minimum 5’2 and 120 pounds. Such requests ruled out Dianne Rawlinson, who made a class action suit against the requirements, as she thought that they violated Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Dianne Rawlinson raised the legal question in Court whenever height and weight requirements for employment as a prison guard in the Alabama would violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

Prison classification is an important process in the U.S. correctional system and community corrections. Every state utilizes different types of classification method to classify their inmates. Penal institutions in the U.S. have evolved tremendously in terms of sentencing procedures, decisions and classifications. Studies from Clear et al. (2013) indicate that offenders in the United States, which consists of men, women, and juveniles, were all confined together in the same prison in the early 1800’s (p. 296). Modern correctional facilities do not mix the entire population of men, women, and juvenile offenders in the same jail or prison, but rather, in separate correctional facilities with different levels of security and monitoring. In our current era, correctional facilities for men, women, and juveniles have rehabilitative programs and modern identification systems that have the capability to measure “static risk factors such as criminal history or severity of current crime” (Christensen, 2008, p. 18). This case study will examine Pelican Bay State prison’s racial base classification system, and whether its practices are considered as a violation of an inmate’s civil rights.

Cheryl Perich was an employer of the Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School and filled an employment discrimination suit for alleged violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Cheryl became sick and left work to be on disability, but then was not able to return to her position and allegedly urged to resign. When she refused resignation, her employer Hosanna fired her. The EEOC then filed a discrimination suit against Hosanna-Tabor, which was dismissed. Upon the appeal by Perich and the EEOC, courts ruled that Perich was not a ministerial employee and the case must be retried on the merit of the discrimination claims. In this case, 10-553, the appeal was reversed and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Hosanna-Tabor’s actions were lawful.

In week 6, I will be discussing the Americans with Disabilities Act. Secondly, I will discuss applications to hiring health care providers and how to establish reasonable accommodations. In my review of case EEOC v. Sears, Roebuck & Co., I will discover my findings in the American with Disabilities Act and what it entails. In conclusion, I will discuss my overall discoveries and what was important.

The Dothard vs Rawlinson civil discrimination case that originated in Alabama, in 1977, when a twenty two year old woman, who held a degree in Correctional Psychology, was denied employment by a prison because she did not meet their height and weight requirements. The lawsuit argued that the height and weight requirement set by the prison unreasonably discriminated against female applicants. The standard at the time was a height of 5 feet and 2 inches with a minimum weight of 120 pounds. The applicant mentioned in this law suit meet the height requirement but did not meet the weight. Studies showed that because of this requirement women were only eligible for twenty five percent of the positions with in the prison system and that being a woman

Individuals with a history of incarceration have a major struggle settling back in the society after the imprisonment period. Policies have not been very effective in offering support to these individuals. Even though it is not a protected by under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, the EEOC revised its

The Supreme Court’s reasoning behind the decision to overturn the district court’s ruling lay with the fact that the case at hand was still a discrimination case and violated the ADEA of 1967 and the Supreme Court realized this. They understood that this case was not black and white though, as the district court’s ruling made it seem. Furthermore, the Supreme Court appreciated that McKennon's misconduct was relevant in the formulation of the desired remedy requested by McKennon. Because of this, it became applicable for the court to consider the employee’s misconduct when determining the plaintiff’s desired relief. According to Hoffman (1996), the court was “sensitive to the employer's legitimate concerns and the lawful prerogatives of the employer in the usual course of its business” (p. 82). Additionally, the Supreme Court ruled that any employer who is seeking the implementation of after-acquired evidence of misconduct must prove that the misconduct was so severe that if the employee

To survive summary judgment in a disability discrimination case under the ADA, the plaintiff must make a prima facie showing that she could perform the essential functions of her job with or without reasonable accommodations. 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. When evaluating what the essential functions for a specific job are the employer’s judgment is highly probative. 42 U.S.C. § 12101(2). MMC established the essential functions of the Nurse Manager position by drafting Exhibit A, the want ad posting, and by practice, namely Deon Washington’s training of former nurses including Blake, for the past twenty-seven years as Nurse Manager of the ACU. The court in Heaser set up a list of factors to help establish the essential functions of a given job,

On the Bureau of Labor Statistics website you can get the general idea of what a web developer does, what the work environment is, the job outlook, and the pay rate. On the What They Do page is a list of the duties of a web developer. Some of these duties include meeting with clients or management to discuss the needs of the website and the expected needs of the website’s audience and plan how it should look, working with other team members to determine what information the site will contain, and working with graphics and other designers to determine the website’s layout. All of the duties above require communication skills either by phone, email or in person.

On August 22, 2016, the Ninth Circuit held that the clause was unenforceable due to employee rights. The Court’s

Dianne Rawlinson applied to be a prison guard with the Alabama Department of Corrections. The Department had a minimum height and weight requirement of 120 pounds and 5 feet 2 inches. She did not meet the minimum weight requirement, so the Department refused to hire her. Rawlinson sued on behalf of herself and all similarly situated women under Title VII, alleging sex discrimination. While this suit was pending, the Alabama Board of Corrections adopted a rule banning women from working in contact positions that require close physical proximity to inmates. Rawlinson amended her complaint to challenge the new rule as well. The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Alabama ruled in favor of Rawlinson (Oyez, n.d.). The district court found

Imagine a world with no competition, no entrepreneurs entering a market and opening up jobs to the public while providing benefits to consumers in the process. The market would suffer immensely without competition and instead of more benefits being provided, prices for the goods and services provided by that market will increase. Occupational licenses are an example of how entrepreneurs could be driven out, thus keeping out any competition and driving up prices instead of providing benefits. Occupational licenses create a barrier from entering a market and if the license requirements are truly outrageous, less entrepreneurs will be inclined to enter the field. For example, the state of Rhode Island is one of forty states who require an occupational

Under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (“ADEA”) contains the rule based on defense of bona fide occupational qualifications (“BFOQ”). Specifically, under ADEA, employer may not advertise based on age preferences. (Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967). Using age range or “young boy,” “young girl,” “college student,” or “recent college graduate,” will likely violate the ADEA. (29 C.F.R. §1625.4(a)). However, employer can use BFOQ as a narrow exception defense (Miller, 2013). For BFOQ defense, the employer must prove that (1) requirement was reasonably necessary to the business; and (2) individualized approach is pointless or impracticable. (W. Air Lines v. Criswell, 1985). Safety can be one of the legitimate reasons for BFOQ defense. (W. Air Lines v. Criswell, 1985).

Physical ability testing is used to select applicants for manual labor or physically demanding jobs (Gatewood, Field, & Barrick, 2016). Types of jobs that use them include firefighters, law enforcement, military personnel, or professional sports. It can be defined as assessing a candidate’s physical ability to perform essential job tasks (Gatewood et al, 2016). There are three main reasons behind the use of physical ability tests today. The first being that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) legislation has resulted in more women and handicapped individuals applying for male-dominated physical labor positions (Campion, 1983). Despite women typically scoring lower on PATs compared to men, applicants must be evaluated