A case pending before the Texas Supreme Court could make the Lone Star State the latest to guarantee discrimination protections for workers who are obese under state and federal disability law, giving the justices the chance to weigh in on an increasingly relevant workplace issue.
The state’s top court will hear oral arguments Feb. 21 in a case where first-year medical resident Lindsey Niehay is alleging she was illegally fired from Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center because of her obesity, a category she said is covered as a disability under state law.
The state of Michigan and a handful of cities across the US are the only jurisdictions that explicitly protect obese workers from discrimination, although some states are considering legislation to ban weight discrimination at work. In court, plaintiffs in virtually every other jurisdiction end up making similar arguments as Niehay, that their obesity is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act or its state analogs.
Tigress Osborn, chair of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, applauded Niehay for bringing the case but said that weight discrimination should have its own statute separate from disability. An obese person facing workplace discrimination may not see themselves as disabled, she said.
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