PRACTITIONER BLOG
Read our analyses of developments in Impact Litigation and stay current on class action law
Female athletes from James Campbell High School score class certification after Ninth Circuit Appeal
When several students and parents from the girl’s water polo team flagged concerns of gender discrimination, the DOE retaliated against the class. The administration threatened to cancel the water polo season, increased scrutiny of the team, and mysteriously lost required team paperwork. This retaliatory conduct and the stark inequality between male and female athletes at Campbell are out of bounds under Title IX. In an upset, the District Court denied class certification in 2019 finding that the class failed to meet numerosity standards and, for the class-wide retaliation claims, that plaintiffs failed to show typicality and commonality.
Ninth Circuit Panel Decertifies Class of Janitorial & Maintenance Workers: Impact Fund & Amici Urge Rehearing
A certified class of janitorial and maintenance workers survived two motions for decertification, successfully proved employer wrongdoing at summary judgment, and received significant damages in a jury bellwether trial before seeing their efforts undone by the Ninth Circuit. The recent panel opinion in Bowerman v. Field Asset Services, Inc., 39 F.4th 652, 661-63 (9th Cir. 2022), reversed certification after over seven years of litigation as a certified class. In doing so, the panel blatantly ignored the district judge’s repeated conclusion that the case was best managed as a class action.
Settlements bring key technology, other accommodations for Deaf, hard of hearing, and blind incarcerated people in Colorado
When Brian Mackes wants to submit a grievance challenging prison conditions, contact the infirmary with his medical concerns, or write a letter to his lawyer, he has to dictate his words to a fellow prisoner* who writes them down and – he hopes – writes them legibly, spells them correctly, and keeps them in confidence. Zach Radford did not understand the teachers in his required therapeutic class and was eventually removed from the class for nonparticipation; he remained on the waiting list for other required classes while others were admitted. Mr. Mackes is blind; Mr. Radford is Deaf;** both are prisoners in the custody of the Colorado Department of Corrections (CDOC).
West Virginia Can No Longer Discriminate Against Transgender Medicaid Participants
On August 2, 2022, federal District Court Judge Robert C. Chambers granted affirmative summary judgment for Plaintiffs in Fain et al. v. Crouch et. al, and ruled that West Virginia could no longer discriminate against transgender Medicaid participants by excluding coverage for gender-confirming surgical care. In their complaint, Plaintiffs alleged that West Virginia state health insurance plans deprive transgender people of essential, and sometimes life-saving, health care.