This month, we discuss Littlejohn v. City of New York, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit addressed the intersection of the McDonnell Douglas evidentiary framework and the “plausibility” pleadings standard announced in Ashcroft v. Iqbal.1 In the decision, written by Judge Christopher Droney and joined by Judges Pierre Leval and Gerard Lynch, the court reconciled the heightened pleading standards outlined in Iqbal with the McDonnell Douglas evidentiary standard and held that, to the extent that the McDonnell Douglas framework relaxes the factual showing required for plaintiffs to defeat a summary judgment motion, it likewise relaxes the facts needed to be pleaded under Iqbal to survive a motion to dismiss.
The court also clarified the scope of Title VII protected activity under the opposition clause in §704(a) of the Civil Rights Act,2 holding that the clause protects certain activities of all employees, even if their job duties include monitoring and investigating complaints of discrimination. The opposition clause specifies that it is unlawful for an employer to discriminate against an employee because she “opposed” a discriminatory action or policy. 42 U.S.C.A. §2000e-3(a).
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