In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court in the case of University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar, 133 S.Ct. 978 (2013), clarified the standard of causation a plaintiff must satisfy in order to prevail on a claim of retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and 1991, as amended. In Nassar, Naiel Nassar alleged that his constructive discharge from employment, and the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center’s subsequent failure to rehire, were in retaliation for his complaints of race and religious discrimination. The jury found in Nassar’s favor under a mixed-motive theory of liability and awarded him in excess of $400,000 in back pay, plus over $3 million in compensatory damages. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit affirmed the verdict and concluded that retaliation claims brought under Title VII require only a showing that retaliation was a motivating factor, rather than the but-for cause, of the adverse job action.

The U.S. Supreme Court reversed, holding that a plaintiff asserting a claim of retaliatory termination under Title VII must prove that his protected activity (i.e., opposing workplace discrimination or participating in a U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission investigation) was the but-for cause for the termination of his employment. In so ruling, the court relied primarily upon the detailed statutory structure set forth in Title VII. Nassar came on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2009 decision in Gross v. FBL Financial Services, 557 U.S. 167 (2009), which held that plaintiffs suing for age discrimination in the workplace must prove “but-for” causation under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act.

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