{"id":2904,"date":"2024-10-06T04:11:26","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T04:11:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/4th-circuit-revives-workplace-retaliation-lawsuit-against-bidens-hhs-secretary\/"},"modified":"2024-10-06T04:11:26","modified_gmt":"2024-10-06T04:11:26","slug":"4th-circuit-revives-workplace-retaliation-lawsuit-against-bidens-hhs-secretary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/4th-circuit-revives-workplace-retaliation-lawsuit-against-bidens-hhs-secretary\/","title":{"rendered":"4th Circuit Revives Workplace Retaliation Lawsuit Against Biden’s HHS Secretary"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has revived a workplace-retaliation lawsuit against the Biden administration’s secretary of health and human services.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Xavier Becerra, secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is a defendant in a civil rights complaint accusing HHS of retaliating against a Black woman who previously worked for the National Institutes of Health.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Tijuana Decoster stated a plausible claim of retaliation under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Fourth Circuit ruled Wednesday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“Therefore, we hold that the district court erred by dismissing Decoster’s retaliation claim,” Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin wrote in her opinion for the Fourth Circuit. “Decoster properly placed both the merits and remedy of her retaliation claim at issue by filing her complaint containing allegations which sufficiently state a claim of retaliation under Title VII.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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Judge DeAndrea Gist Benjamin, on\u00a0 Nov. 15, 2022. Photo: Diego M. Radzinschi\/ALM <\/figure>\n<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Judges Roger L. Gregory and Julius N. Richardson joined Benjamin’s opinion, overturning part of U.S. District Judge Theodore D. Chuang of the District of Maryland’s judgment and remanding the retaliation claim to trial court for further proceedings.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Decoster resigned from her NIH position in February 2020 after filing an internal complaint accusing her supervisor of racial bias and retaliation, according to the Fourth Circuit’s decision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Eden Brown Gaines of Brown Gaines filed a complaint in Maryland federal court in August 2021 on behalf of Decoster, a former chief grants management officer for the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke division of NIH.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Brown Gaines appealed to the Fourth Circuit after Chuang dismissed Decoster’s complaint in full.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Fourth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of Decoster’s hostile work environment and constructive discharge claims but reversed the dismissal of her retaliation claim.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Brown Gaines said she is “disappointed” the Fourth Circuit did not adopt the Seventh Circuit’s theory of constructive discharge as endorsed in EEOC v. University of Chicago Hospitals<\/em> but is “grateful the Fourth Circuit decided Dr. Decoster’s retaliation claim should proceed.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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“The Seventh Circuit has it right concerning constructive discharge and the termination writing being on the wall,” Brown Gaines said Friday in a statement. “It’s also disappointing that this [Fourth Circuit] Court continues to enforce a harassment standard that does not recognize any unprofessional behavior by white men with more power in the workplace against Black women is more often purposeful discrimination than a personality dispute.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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HHS did not respond to a request for comment on this article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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The Fourth Circuit rendered its 3-0 decision in\u00a0Decoster v. Becerra<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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