Every claim against the employer failed - but a judge flagged what courts keep getting wrong
A federal appeals court sided with an employer accused of race bias - but a judge warned that courts keep getting a key rule wrong.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled on September 8, 2026 that Priority Life Care, a family-run operator of senior living communities, was entitled to have a former sales and marketing director's race discrimination case thrown out before trial. The court rejected every claim she brought. The part that should interest HR most, though, sits in a separate opinion, where one judge on the panel called out a mistake he says courts keep making.
The worker, a Black woman, was hired in January 2021 to help fill a newly built, 150-unit assisted living facility for low-income residents in southeast Washington, D.C. Admissions were slow. The building opened on June 4, 2021 with a single resident and had three by early July. Her employer put her on a performance improvement plan on July 6, pointing to her failure to use its email campaigns, lead-tracking systems and marketing programs. After a heated meeting on August 9, the company fired her on August 12 for what it called continued insubordination and unprofessionalism. It replaced her that same month with another Black employee.
She sued for race discrimination, retaliation and a hostile work environment. In her account, several white managers made a run of racist remarks about Black residents...
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