AutoZone Beats Gender Bias Suit by Worker Who Refused Drug Test

AutoZone Inc. doesn’t have to face trial on an employee’s claims that his gender and job bias charge, and not his refusal to take a drug test, spurred his termination, a St. Louis federal judge ruled.

The former assistant store manager couldn’t convince a jury that the company’s firing justification was a pretext for discrimination in part because the regional manager who made the decision had also hired him just nine months earlier, the US District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri said. Eighth Circuit case law recognizes a strong inference that bias wasn’t a motivating factor for an ...