Legal Research

"Ohio Breastfeeding Case"

Posted by Chuck Kallendorf: "In a case originally accepted to seek a review of whether Ohio law prohibits an employer from discriminating against a female employee because, or on the basis of , a new mother's lactation, the Ohio Supreme Court last Thursday none-the-less upheld its appeals court decision that the woman "was simply and plainly terminated as an employee at will for taking an unauthorized, extra break."

"The record as it was developed in the trial court," the per curiam decision said, "fails to provide a basis from which a jury could conclude that the woman's employer's articulated legitimate, nondiscriminatory reason for her termination--failure to follow directions--was a pretext for discrimination based on her pregnancy or a condition related to her pregnancy. This determination defeats a sex-discrimination claim under R.C. 4112.02 as a matter of law... Consequently, this court does not reach the issue of whether alleged discrimination due to lactation is included within the scope of Ohio's employment-discrimination statute, R.C. 4112.02, as sex discrimination under R.C. 4112.01(B)," Judge Terrence O'Donnell adding in concurrence that "it is the long-standing practice of courts to decide only issues presented by the facts and to refrain from deciding issues that the facts do not place directly in issue."

The decision wasn't that "cut-and-dry," however, with two of the panel's judges concurring "in judgment only," and a third dissenting...

Full text and active links are available at the source site listed below.

Source: Cincinnati Law Library Blog, 1 September 2009

Full post as published by Stark County Law Library Blawg on September 02, 2009 (boomark / email).