A guard looks on near the wall of a prison unit in Huntsville, Texas January 22, 2014. REUTERS/Richard Carson
(Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court panel on Wednesday reluctantly ruled that a sex-based scheduling system for jail guards in Dallas County, Texas, did not amount to unlawful sex bias, while imploring the full court to reconsider its standard for proving workplace discrimination.
A unanimous 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel said the county's policy that only allowed male guards to have entire weekends off did not involve an "ultimate employment decision," such as being fired or demoted. For decades, the 5th Circuit has said only those kinds of actions can form the basis of discrimination claims.
Circuit Judge Carl Stewart wrote that the 5th Circuit's high bar to prove that employment actions violate Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 clashes with other appeals courts that only require workers to show actions affected the terms and conditions of their employment.
Stewart, an appointee of former Democratic President Bill Clinton, said that because Dallas County's policy was discriminatory on its face, the case was an "ideal vehicle" for the full court to reconsider its past decisions and "achieve fidelity to the text of Title VII." Only a full, or en banc, appeals court can overturn its existing precedent.
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