VCU Professor Fails With Reprisal Appeal Over Lost Second Role

A Virginia Commonwealth University professor lacked evidence the school’s decision not to renew her supplement administrative role was retaliation for her race discrimination complaints, a divided Fourth Circuit ruled.

The 2-1 unpublished opinion turned largely on the School of Social Work professor’s failure to show VCU’s explanation for not reappointing her as the school’s director of field education was pretextual. Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch have criticized the pretext requirement used in analyzing circumstantial proof in job bias cases while questioning the continued vitality of the decades-old McDonnell Douglas test, though the pretext analysis has drawn support from attorneys. ...