Jespersen Revisited

Remember the Jespersen case we discussed in class and described in the text in which the female bar tender at Harrah's casino, Darlene Jespersen, sued the casino for sex discrimination becuase its dress/appearance code required her -- in very specific regulations that didn't also apply to men -- to wear makeup?

Well, after a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit held in favor of Harrah's last year, Jespersen asked a larger panel of judges to hear the case. (This new hearing is "en banc." In some circuits, this means all of the judges sit for the rehearing; but, because there are so many judges in the 9th Circuit, eleven of them sit for the rehearing. This step is an alternative to simply giving up or trying to appeal to the Supreme Court.)

The en banc panel's opinion in the case was issued yesterday. The court majority of seven judges affirmed the grant of summary judgment for Harrah's, but with slightly different reasoning than the earlier panel. There were also a couple of dissents that are interesting.

Great discussion of the en banc opinion can be found here and here. I encourage you to read those posts. (Especially Lauren whose research paper was on this very topic!!)