• A healthcare information technology firm may have “overreacted” in its decision to fire an employee less than three months after she reported her manager for alleged racial and gender bias, but the proximity between the decision and the report didn’t show unlawful retaliation, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals held in a March 26 decision.
• The plaintiff in Green v. HCTec Partners, LLC, a Black woman, complained to HR in February 2021 that her manager, a Black man, treated her differently than her co-worker, a White man, on the basis of her race and gender. A few months later, in May, the manager fired the plaintiff after he allegedly uncovered inappropriate and insubordinate electronic messages sent by the plaintiff to co-workers.
• The plaintiff claimed her firing constituted unlawful discrimination and retaliation under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but the district court and 5th Circuit granted summary judgment to the employer. Though it noted that the timing between the HR report and firing was “relatively close” and that the firing itself was questionable, the 5th Circuit ultimately held that the plaintiff failed to prove her claims.

In its analysis, the 5th Circuit offered a light critique of the employer’s choice to terminate the plaintiff without giving her the opportunity to defend herself or to clarify any ambiguities or mistaken conclusions that may have been drawn from her communications. But in doing so, the court also stressed that it was not...

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