Associational Discrimination

March 18, 2015 by mjpospis

Your Sick Daughter or Your Job? Associational Discrimination Claims Survive Summary Judgment

Many employment discrimination cases involve allegations by an employee (or former employee) that they have endured discriminatory treatment based on one or more of that person’s protected characteristics. But what you may not know is that there is another type of claim – referred to in the case law as “associational discrimination” – based on the…

Anti-Semitic Comments Support Employment Discrimination Claim by Non-Jewish Employee Married to Jewish Woman

In Chiara v. Town of New Castle, decided January 14, 2015, the Appellate Division, 2nd Dept. explicitly recognized a cause of action for discrimination “by association” under the New York State Human Rights Law, codified at Executive Law § 296. Specifically, it concluded that a plaintiff alleging discrimination in employment on the basis of religion in…