burden-shifting
50 cases — ← All topics
| Case | Title | Lower Court | Docketed | Status | Flags | Tags | Question Presented |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 25-6605 | Julian Francis Bates v. General Motors, LLC, dba GM | Sixth Circuit | 2026-01-16 | Pending | IFP | burden-shifting discovery-rules employee-resource-group employment-discrimination gender-bias summary-judgment | Can a party fail to cooperate in discovery, disobey court rules, interrupt the McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green burden-shifting evidence approach and … |
| 25-824 | Tony Moody v. Ohio Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services | Ohio | 2026-01-13 | Pending | antidiscrimination-law burden-shifting due-process employment-retaliation equal-protection statutory-safeguards | 1. Whether the cumulative errors in applying established antiretaliation standards —specifically the misapplication of the McDonnell Douglas burden-… | |
| 25-690 | Ryan Thornell, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. v. Bradley Bieganski | Ninth Circuit | 2025-12-12 | Pending | Response RequestedResponse Waived | burden-shifting constitutional-law criminal-procedure due-process habeas-corpus ninth-circuit-review | Did the Ninth Circuit fail to apply the correct deferential standard of review, as set out in 28 U.S.C. § 2254(d), and also misapply this Court's prec… |
| 25-587 | Julio Licinio v. New York, et al. | Second Circuit | 2025-11-18 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting case-law employment-discrimination judicial-framework mcdonnell-douglas stare-decisis | Whether McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973), should be overruled. |
| 25-450 | Paul W. Parker, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Curtis John Rookaird v. BNSF Railway Company, a Delaware Corporation | Ninth Circuit | 2025-10-15 | Denied | Response Waived | adverse-employment burden-shifting clear-and-convincing-evidence personnel-action protected-conduct whistleblower-protection | Whether AIR 21's affirmative defense is satisfied where an employer proves protected activity played only a limited role along with non-protected cond… |
| 25A271 | Julio Licinio v. New York, et al. | Second Circuit | 2025-09-08 | Presumed Complete | burden-shifting civil-rights employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas summary-judgment title-vii | Question not identified. | |
| 25-264 | Trevor Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, et al. | Second Circuit | 2025-09-08 | Denied | Amici (1) | administrative-law burden-shifting circuit-split employment-discrimination statutory-interpretation whistleblower-protection | Whether a "contributing factor" in Section 42121(b) is one that "alone or in connection with other factors, tends to affect in any way the outcome of … |
| 25-239 | Tonya C. Huber v. Westar Foods, Inc. | Eighth Circuit | 2025-08-29 | Denied | burden-shifting employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas prima-facie-case retaliatory-intent summary-judgment | 1. In an employment action in which the plaintiff alleges the defendant engaged in unlawful intentional discrimination or retaliation, if the defendan… | |
| 25A162 | Paul W. Parker, as Personal Representative of the Estate of Curtis John Rookaird v. BNSF Railway Company, a Delaware Corporation | Ninth Circuit | 2025-08-06 | Presumed Complete | affirmative-defense burden-shifting clear-and-convincing-evidence de-novo-review federal-railroad-safety-act protected-activity | Whether a district court's determination that an employer met its burden to prove, by "clear and convincing evidence," that it would have taken the sa… | |
| 25A141 | Trevor Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, et al. | Second Circuit | 2025-08-04 | Presumed Complete | burden-shifting contributing-factor employment-discrimination retaliatory-intent sarbanes-oxley whistleblower-protection | Whether the "contributing factor" standard under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act whistleblower protection provision, 18 U.S.C. § 1514A, requires proof that pro… | |
| 25-103 | BofI Federal Bank, nka Axos Bank v. Charles Matthew Erhart | Ninth Circuit | 2025-07-28 | Denied | Response Waived | affirmative-defense burden-shifting employment-law personnel-action sarbanes-oxley whistleblower-protection | Under AIR-21's two-step framework, can evidence showing an employee's protected activity was a contributing factor in the unfavorable personnel action… |
| 25-44 | Fiyyaz Pirani v. Slack Technologies, Inc., et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2025-07-14 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting circuit-conflict direct-listing prospectus-liability registration-requirement securities-act | 1. Whether Section 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act of 1933 requires plaintiffs to plead and prove that they bought shares registered in the offering fo… |
| 24-620 | Jaime H. Pizarro, et al. v. The Home Depot, Inc., et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2024-12-06 | Dismissed | CVSGAmici (1)Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (3) | burden-shifting causation erisa fiduciary-duty statutory-interpretation trust-law | This case raises a long-unresolved question at the heart of ERISA's fiduciary enforcement provisions. The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1… |
| 24-603 | Esther Darnell v. Department of Justice, et al. | Fifth Circuit | 2024-12-03 | Denied | Response WaivedRelisted (2) | burden-shifting discovery-compliance employment-discrimination hostile-work-environment overtime-claims title-vii | 1. Whether the Fifth Circuit committed error when it affirmed the district court's acceptance of DEA's Notice of Discovery Compliance including a decl… |
| 24-427 | Ronald Hittle v. City of Stockton, California, et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2024-10-16 | Denied | Amici (10)Relisted (5) | burden-shifting causation employment-discrimination motivating-factor supreme-court-precedent title-vii | 1. Whether this Court should overrule McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973). 2. Whether step three of the McDonnell Douglas burden-sh… |
| 24-378 | Muzafar Babakr v. Jacob T. Fowles, et al. | Tenth Circuit | 2024-10-02 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting civil-procedure excusable-neglect pioneer-factors qualified-immunity summary-judgment | Under Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, a moving party is allowed an out-of-time filing if they establish excusable neglect. Fed. R. Civ. P. 6(b)(1)(B… |
| 24A300 | Esther Darnell v. Department of Justice, et al. | Fifth Circuit | 2024-09-27 | Presumed Complete | burden-shifting discovery-compliance employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas personal-knowledge summary-judgment | Question not identified. | |
| 24-5149 | Brandy Thompson v. Lloyd J. Austin, III, Secretary of Defense, et al. | Fourth Circuit | 2024-07-26 | Denied | Response WaivedRelisted (2)IFP | ada-discrimination ada-rehabilitation-act-burden-shifting-qualified-i burden-shifting disability-rights employment-discrimination reasonable-accommodation retaliation-claim | Did the lower court correctly apply the burden-shifting framework in assessing the plaintiffs discrimination and retaliation claims under the American… |
| 23-1347 | Fang Zeng v. Mingan Chen, et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2024-06-26 | Denied | burden-shifting civil-procedure civil-procedure 23-1346" default-judgment default-judgments due-process employment-discrimination foreign-defendant foreign-defendants Is the McDonnell Douglas framework applicable to m mixed-motive personal-jurisdiction pretext service-of-process substituted-service summary-judgment title-vii | In these federal cases Plaintiffs could not locate Defendant in California for personal service of process, because at all times Defendant was a res… | |
| 23-1346 | The Golub Corporation v. Elaine Bart | Second Circuit | 2024-06-26 | Denied | burden-of-proof burden-shifting employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas mixed-motive pretext summary-judgment title-vii | 1. Is the McDonnell Douglas framework applicable to mixed motive discrimination cases, and if so, how are the three stages of that framework to be for… | |
| 23-7708 | Joshua Peters v. United States | Third Circuit | 2024-06-13 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | burden-shifting constitutional-law criminal-procedure due-process government-misconduct new-trial presumption-of-innocence prosecutorial-misconduct trial-order | Before trial, the district court barred the Government from commenting that the defense had the opportunity to conduct independent forensic testing on… |
| 23-875 | Estate of Arlene Townsend, et al. v. Steven M. Berman, et al. | Eleventh Circuit | 2024-02-14 | Denied | Response Waived | 11-usc-327 bankruptcy-code bankruptcy-disclosure bankruptcy-estate bankruptcy-professionals bankruptcy-trustee burden-shifting court-discretion fed-r-bankr-p-2014 professional-conflicts trustee-obligations | The Bankruptcy Code burdens professionals retained by a bankruptcy estate pursuant to 11 U.S.C. § 327 to demonstrate the absence of any conflicts of i… |
| 23A356 | Laura Barbour Bowes, as Executor of the Estate of Eva Palmer v. Liberty University, Inc. | Fourth Circuit | 2023-10-19 | Presumed Complete | burden-shifting circuit-split employment-discrimination McDonnell-Douglas ministerial-exception prima-facie-case | Question not identified. | |
| 23-5745 | Zephryn (Stephanie) Hammond v. University of Vermont Medical Center | Vermont | 2023-10-10 | Denied | IFP | burden-of-proof burden-shifting employment-discrimination legal-standards mcdonnell-douglas-framework protected-characteristics retaliation retaliation-claim summary-judgment | 1. Under organizational policy when an employee makes a complaint to anyone in a position of authority in regard to a protected characteristic, should… |
| 23-5486 | Gilberto Gonzalez-Gonzalez v. United States | Eleventh Circuit | 2023-08-30 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | burden-shifting carella-v-california criminal-trial due-process francis-v-franklin joint-possession jury-instructions legal-precedent mandatory-presumptions | Whether, after Francis v. Franklin, 471 U.S. 307 (1985) and Carella v. California, 491 U.S. 263 (1989), the burden-shifting jury instructions on joint… |
| 22-1140 | Dr. Chinwe Offor v. Mercy Medical Center, et al. | Second Circuit | 2023-05-25 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting civil-procedure civil-rights due-process fabrication forgery fraud hospital-records mcdonnell-douglas precedent sanctions summary-judgment | I. Whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit manifestly departed from this Court's precedent by holding that egregious and repetitive a… |
| 22-687 | Randall S. Goulding v. Securities and Exchange Commission | Seventh Circuit | 2023-01-24 | Denied | burden-shifting disgorgement legitimate-business liu-v-sec net-profits non-fraudulent-activities sec sec-enforcement treasury-distribution | 1. Whether a district court's award of disgorgement to the SEC based on the defendant's cash withdrawals from a business without considering whether t… | |
| 22-660 | Trevor Murray v. UBS Securities, LLC, et al. | Second Circuit | 2023-01-18 | Judgment Issued | Amici (14)Relisted (2) | affirmative-defense burden-shifting employment-law intent personnel-action retaliation retaliatory-intent sarbanes-oxley whistleblower whistleblower-protection | Under the burden-shifting framework that governs Sarbanes-Oxley cases, must a whistleblower prove his employer acted with a "retaliatory intent" as pa… |
| 22-6145 | Daniel Alexander Rodriguez v. David Shinn, Director, Arizona Department of Corrections, Rehabilitation and Reentry, et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2022-11-22 | Denied | Response WaivedIFP | arizona-law burden-shifting commenting-on-silence falsely-representing-evidence ineffective-assistance misstating-law misstating-witness ninth-circuit-review prejudice-analysis prosecutorial-misconduct strickland-standard | Whether the Ninth Circuit incorrectly applied Arizona law in finding that multiple instances of prosecutorial misconduct, including falsely representi… |
| 22-5915 | Charlesworth Rae v. Children's National Medical Center, et al. | District of Columbia | 2022-10-26 | Denied | IFP | burden-of-proof burden-shifting civil-procedure employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas-test retaliation standard-of-review supervisor-misconduct vicarious-liability | The following questions are presented: Whether the United States Court of Appeals incorrectly applied the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting test to p… |
| 22-14 | Brad Faver v. Harold W. Clarke, Director, Virginia Department of Corrections | Fourth Circuit | 2022-07-05 | Denied | Response Waived | appellate-review burden-of-proof burden-shifting civil-rights district-court-finding due-process free-speech least-restrictive-means religious-accommodation sincerely-held-belief standing vendor-policy | 1. Whether the Appellate Court erred in failing to shift the burden to the Defendant's once Mr. Faver established a sincerely held belief that was bur… |
| 21-1385 | Carolyn D. Robinson v. Walmart Stores East, LP | Eleventh Circuit | 2022-04-26 | Denied | Response Waived | 42-usc-1981 burden-shifting civil-rights due-process employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas prima-facie-case section-1981 seventh-amendment summary-judgment | 1. Should the McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973) burden shifting test remain a part of the summary judgment analysis in employment … |
| 21-6690 | Joe Pyatt v. AECOM Technical Services, Inc. | Eleventh Circuit | 2021-12-21 | Denied | IFP | appellate-review burden-shifting civil-rights discrimination-framework disparate-treatment district-court due-process employment-discrimination judicial-precedent mcdonnell-douglas precedent title-vii | 1. Whether the district court, as well as the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, can overrule the precedent of this court set in McDonnell Douglas Cor… |
| 21-6484 | Thomas Lee Battle v. California | California | 2021-12-01 | Denied | IFP | batson-challenge batson-v-kentucky burden-shifting civil-rights discrimination hypothetical-justifications jury-selection prima-facie prima-facie-case prosecutorial-discretion title-vii | 1. Should analysis of a prima facie case of discrimination under Batson prohibit reliance upon hypothetical justifications never advanced by the prose… |
| 21-733 | Clyde Dandridge v. Walmart Stores, Inc. | Eleventh Circuit | 2021-11-17 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting causation civil-rights eeoc eeoc-charge employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas retaliation title-vii | The question presented which has caused a split in the Circuit Courts of Appeal application of the law pertaining to Retaliation cases under Title VII… |
| 21-640 | Five Star Automatic Fire Protection, L.L.C. v. Department of Labor | Fifth Circuit | 2021-11-02 | Denied | burden-shifting civil-rights class-action due-process evidentiary-rule fair-labor-standards-act overtime-pay representative-testimony wal-mart-v-dukes | 1. In Wal-Mart v. Dukes, this Court rejected "Trial by Formula" in disapproving the use of representative testimony for certification of Rule 23 class… | |
| 21-359 | Flomo Tealeh v. Ward County, North Dakota, et al. | Eighth Circuit | 2021-09-08 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas prima-facie prima-facie-case protected-activity title-vii workplace-harassment | 1. Whether, in accordance with this Court's directive that the standard for the second prong of a prima facie case of discrimination under the McDonne… |
| 20-1763 | Fenyang Stewart v. Wilbur L. Ross, Secretary of Commerce, et al. | Fourth Circuit | 2021-06-22 | Denied | Response Waived | administrative-law burden-shifting but-for-analysis disability-discrimination disability-related-interference merit-systems-protection-board rehabilitation-act retaliation retaliation-claims statutory-interpretation statutory-text | Should disability-related interference claims brought pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 12203(b) be analyzed as retaliation claims susceptible to a burden-shift… |
| 20-790 | Reginald Eric Sprowl v. Mercedes-Benz U.S. International, Inc. | Eleventh Circuit | 2020-12-09 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-of-proof burden-shifting civil-procedure civil-rights disparate-treatment employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas prima-facie-case summary-judgment | 1. Should the McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792 (1973) burden shifting test remain a part of the summary judgment analysis? |
| 20-638 | Samuel Gonzales v. ConocoPhillips Company, et al. | Fifth Circuit | 2020-11-10 | Denied | Response Waived | attorney-fees burden-shifting civil-rights discretion employee-benefits erisa | 1. Whether and to what extent district courts must consider ERISA's purpose "to protect *** the interests of participants in employee benefit plans an… |
| 19-7061 | Charles Edward Smith v. United States | Eleventh Circuit | 2019-12-27 | Denied | IFP | appellate-review batson-challenge batson-v-kentucky burden-shifting clearly-erroneous-standard jury-selection peremptory-challenge prima-facie-case racial-discrimination standard-of-review | In Batson v. Kentucky, 476 U.S. 79, 97 (1986), the Court set forth a three-step protocol to prevent racial discrimination in jury selection. It applie… |
| 19-745 | Khalil Williams v. Housing Opportunities for Persons with Exceptionalities | Eleventh Circuit | 2019-12-11 | Denied | burden-of-proof burden-shifting circumstantial-evidence civil-rights comparator-evidence employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas prima-facie-case racial-discrimination summary-judgment title-vii | What test should courts use in evaluating motions for summary judgment in discrimination cases when the evidence needed to establish a traditional McD… | |
| 19-732 | Richard Natofsky v. City of New York | Second Circuit | 2019-12-10 | Denied | ada adverse-employment-action americans-with-disabilities-act burden-of-proof burden-shifting but-for-causation causation-standard civil-rights disability-discrimination employment-discrimination employment-law mixed-motive mixed-motive-causation | Whether the Americans with Disabilities Act permits employees to proceed under a mixed-motive causation standard before the burden shifts to employers… | |
| 19-344 | Qihui Huang v. Ajit Varadaraj Pai, Chairman of Federal Communications Commission, et al. | District of Columbia | 2019-09-17 | Denied | Response WaivedRelisted (2) | burden-shifting civil-procedure civil-rights compensation constitutional-amendments discrimination due-process retaliation standing supreme-court-precedent | Q1. Whether lower court could not comply rulings of Supreme Court on: (a) "[Respondent's] silence implies consent, not the opposite—and courts general… |
| 19-178 | Jagdish C. Laul v. Los Alamos National Laboratories | Tenth Circuit | 2019-08-08 | Denied | burden-shifting civil-procedure employment-discrimination inference-weighing jury-competency jury-trial-right mcdonnell-douglas motive motive-determination seventh-amendment summary-judgment | Does requiring the trial judge to weigh inferences (and in some cases inferences from inferences) and determine motive from competing testimony depriv… | |
| 19-5011 | Danny P. Phipps v. New York | New York | 2019-06-28 | Denied | IFP | 4th-amendment abandonment abandonment-property burden-of-proof burden-shifting civil-rights constitutional-rights due-process jury-selection pro-se-representation property-abandonment search-and-seizure standing | Can Appellate Division develop a rule that shifts the burden from the People to a defendant to prove he or she did not abandon property making it subj… |
| 18A1306 | Latif Shamsuddin v. New York | New York | 2019-06-13 | Presumed Complete | burden-shifting criminal-trial due-process evidence-sufficiency prosecutorial-misconduct summation-comments | Whether a prosecutor's statements during summation improperly shift the burden of proof in a criminal trial in violation of due process | |
| 18-8739 | Armando Lopez v. Massachusetts | Massachusetts | 2019-04-09 | Denied | Response RequestedResponse WaivedRelisted (2)IFP | ammunition burden-of-proof burden-shifting constitutional-rights criminal-defendant criminal-procedure due-process firearm firearm-possession unauthorized-possession | Does the Due Process Clause permit the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to shift the burden to criminal defendants charged with unauthorized possession o… |
| 18-1161 | Regena Bryant v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., et al. | Ninth Circuit | 2019-03-07 | Denied | Response Waived | age-discrimination burden-of-proof burden-shifting civil-rights due-process employment-discrimination mcdonnell-douglas mcdonnell-douglas-framework prima-facie-case summary-judgment title-vii | Determining whether employer's failure to rebut prima facie case of discrimination mandates judgment for plaintiff |
| 18-94 | Augusta Thomas, Jr. v. Delmarva Power & Light Company | Fourth Circuit | 2018-07-20 | Denied | Response Waived | burden-shifting civil-rights due-process employment employment-discrimination employment-law mixed-motive race-discrimination summary-judgment title-vii | Whether the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework should be applied at the summary judgment stage of a mixed-motive Title VII race discriminatio… |