SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH – Attorney General Sean D. Reyes joined an amicus brief to the Supreme Court of the United States in Muldrow v Missouri. The filing, led by the State of Arkansas, urges the nation’s high court to uphold the Eighth Circuit ruling in a case involving Title VII employment transfer decisions.
The case involves a lawsuit, filed by Jatonya Clayborn Muldrow, over Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, alleging that the City of St. Louis discriminated against her because of her sex in transferring her to another division. As a sergeant in the St. Louis Police Department’s Intelligence Division, Muldrow also served as a Task Force Officer for the FBI’s Human Trafficking Unit before being transferred to another division after a change in command. The City moved for summary judgment on the ground that Muldrow’s transfer had not caused her harm or disadvantage. Both the District Court and the Eighth Circuit sided with the City, leading to the appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.
In their brief, the coalition of attorneys general writes that “Muldrow’s proposed approach will have real-world consequences for states and local governments…chill[ing] legitimate and vital lateral transfers and crippl[ing] state and local government. It would inhibit reassignments of teachers to understaffed schools, transfers of police from lower-to-higher-crime areas, and paralyze the everyday reallocation of workers throughout government.”
Joining Utah and Arkansas on the brief were the states of Alabama, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Texas.
