Dreadlocks-Based Race Bias Claim Won’t Get Second Look

Whether an employer’s decision to withdraw a job offer because the applicant’s dreadlocks didn’t comport with its personal grooming rules gives rise to a race discrimination claim won’t get a second look by a federal appeals court.

The Dec. 5 denial of a rehearing by the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit means an earlier three-judge panel’s ruling will stand. The panel in November 2016 rejected the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s theory that an adverse employment decision based on dreadlocks may be discriminatory because of the cultural association between race and hairstyle.

The EEOC filed the lawsuit ...