730 F. Supp. 2d 1 - Nuskey v. Hochberg’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

3 district ·

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 4 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. “The employee’s theory may be that the sole reason for the adverse action was discrimination and that the employer’s proffered legitimate reason for the adverse action was pretextual. Or she may pursue a mixed motive claim, in which she maintains that discrimination was one of a number of factors that motivated the adverse action. In a single motive case, the plaintiff has the burden of proving by a preponderance of the evidence that the reason offered by the defendant is not the true reason for the adverse action and that the real motivation was intentional discrimination. In other words, in a gender discrimination case, for example, the claim is that “but for” discrimination based on the employee’s gender, the employer would not have taken the adverse action against her. By contrast, in a mixed motive case, the theory is that there may be a mixture of legitimate and illegitimate motives for an employer’s action. Thus, the employee must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that she was terminated and that her sex ... was “a motivating factor” for the adverse action.... When an employee proceeds on such a mixed motive theory, once the jury has found by a preponderance of the evidence that discrimination was “a motivating factor,” then the burden shifts to the defendant to prove to the jury, also by a preponderance, that the defendant would have made the same decision even if discrimination had not been a factor.”

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 736 F. Supp. 2d 130 - Beckham v. National Railroad Passenger Corp.