Discussion: Pregnant and sex discriminations

Jennifer Erickson was employed by Bartell Drug Company. Jennifer sued the company because its insurance plan failed to provide coverage for prescription contraceptives. She alleged that this was a form of sex discrimination under Title VII and a violation of the Pregnancy Act (PDA). Her employer defended by arguing that its failure to provide coverage for prescription contraceptives did not violate Title VII or the PDA because prescription contraceptives were voluntary, were preventive, were used by women only, and did not treat or prevent an illness or disease and because control of one’s fertility choices was not pregnancy, childbirth, or a related medical condition under PDA. Bartell Drug Company did cover vasectomy surgery for men. Is preventing pregnancy for women only a form of sex discrimination? Is it a form of pregnancy discrimination? Fully explain the reasons for your answer.

Barie Hamilton worked as a retail store manager for Bally of Switzerland. She claimed that she was sexually harassed by her female supervisor and that she was fired and given negative references because she filed a complaint about the supervisor’s behavior. The employer/supervisor claimed Hamilton was fired because her store sales numbers had dropped and that her store was losing money. Notes in Hamilton’s file indicate that the supervisor had discussed the problem with Hamilton on three occasions. Hamilton alleged that her supervisor’s behavior including telling her that she (the supervisor) was gay, inviting Hamilton and her department out for drinks after work one Friday night, and complimenting her wardrobe, constituted sexual harassment. Bally alleges that Hamilton was fired after a worldwide reorganization of the company. Has Hamilton pled sufficient facts to constitute hostile-environment sexual harassment? Fully explain the reasons for your answer.

Casey stopped making payments on his computer because of financial problems. A debt collector called Casey at work every day, even though Casey’s employer objected to the calls and told the debt collector not to call his place of business anymore. Will the debt collector have violated the Fair Debt Collections Practices Act if he continues the calls? Fully explain the reasons for your answer.

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.