“As we have repeatedly recognized, a supervisor can cause an employee’s termination by reporting true yet selective information.”
Reversing summary judgment against the ADA retaliation claim of a State Farm claims specialist who alleged she was singled out and fired for conduct widespread in the office—timecard manipulation—because she helped her colleague advocate for an accommodation, the Sixth Circuit found sufficient evidence to show a supervisor’s stated reason for reporting her was pretextual and she raised a genuine dispute over his motives, as required for her cat’s paw claim. “This,” said the court, is “not a case in which performance issues precede and then prompt special scrutiny,” but rather “heightened scrutiny seemed to come only after [the employee] engaged in protected activity, with no other prevailing reason to justify it.” Judge Readler, dissenting, argued that the employee “seemingly found more capable advocates on the appellate bench than she did at counsel table” (Gray v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co., No. 24-3086 (6th Cir. July 25, 2025)).
Colleague’s OT accommodation. At the time of her termination, the employee had worked for State Farm for 15 years. Her colleague, who worked on a different team with a different supervisor, had an ADA accommodation that exempted her from working overtime. Nonetheless, in August 2017, her colleague’s supervisor told her State Farm would no longer accommodate her work schedule and placed her on leave...
Choi Jung-won, formerly of the group UN, has been cleared of the false accusation of being an adulterer. On the 26th, Choi Jung-won stated on social media, “Regarding the various claims recently r...