Halliburton Co. v. Administrative Review Board
Opinion of the Court
ORDER:
A member of the court in active service having requested a poll on the reconsideration of this cause en banc, and a majority of the judges in active service and not disqualified not having voted in favor (Fed. R.App. P. 35 and 5th Cir. R. 35), rehearing en banc is DENIED.
In the en banc poll, seven judges voted in favor of rehearing (Judges Jolly, Davis, Jones, Smith, Clement, Owen, and Elrod), and eight judges voted against (Chief Judge Stewart and Judges Dennis, Prado, Southwick, Haynes, Graves, Higginson, and Costa).
ENTERED FOR THE COURT:
James L. Dennis United States Circuit Judge
Dissenting Opinion
joined by JONES and SMITH, Circuit Judges, dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc:
The panel’s decision in this appeal provides yet another gloss upon the Supreme Court’s standard in Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White, defining a “materially adverse” employment action in the context of a retaliation claim. 548 U.S. 53, 68, 126 S.Ct. 2405, 165 L.Ed.2d 345 (2006). Under the supposedly objective standard in Burlington Northern, an employee suffers a materially adverse action if the employer acts in a way that “well might have dissuaded a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.”
The panel seems to admit to an ad hoc nature of its decision; it does not hold that a disclosure of an employee’s identity as a complainant is necessarily a materially adverse employment action under Burlington Northern. See Halliburton, Inc. v. Admin. Review Bd., 771 F.3d 254, 261 (5th Cir. 2014) (acknowledging that the relevant issue was whether the disclosure of the complaining employee’s identity “in the surrounding circumstances amounted to a ‘materially adverse’ action under Burlington ” (emphasis added)). Of course, disclosure of the identity of a complaining employee to his co-workers cannot, without more, be a materially adverse action, because such a disclosure causes no inherent harm to an employee. It is unlike a discharge or significant demotion, where the negative effect on the employee is clear. Indeed, a panel of this Court has recognized, in an unpublished decision, the common-sense principle that a disclosure of an employee as a complainant, standing alone, is not a materially adverse retaliatory action. See Holloway v. Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, 309 Fed.Appx. 816, 819 (5th Cir. 2009).
The panel holds that if the disclosure of the employee’s identity results in ostracism, the disclosure may constitute an adverse employment action under Burlington Northern.
Readers of the panel’s opinion will certainly be confused by the absence of controlling authority for the panel’s holding. Because Stewart and Aryain predate the panel’s decision and remain cognizable law in this Circuit, we remain bound by those decisions — not the panel’s errant decision in this case. See Rios v. City of Del Rio, Tex., 444 F.3d 417, 425 n. 8 (5th Cir. 2006) (“The rule in this circuit is that where two previous holdings or lines of precedent conflict the earlier opinion controls and is the binding precedent in this circuit (absent an intervening holding to the contrary by the Supreme Court or this court en banc).”). Nevertheless, our authority addressing adverse consequences of employment decisions remains foggy. In my conscientious view, the Court should have taken this case en banc to provide some contours to the concept of an adverse employment action so that we mete out employee rights on the same standard to all.
For these reasons, I respectfully dissent.
. Title VII’s anti-retaliation provision was before the Burlington Northern Court, and thus the Court’s decision refers to charges of dis
. The panel also notes that collaboration was an important part of the employee’s job to bolster its analysis of ostracism. Of course, collaboration is important in any job, as is maintaining a positive rapport with co-workers, such that the panel’s emphasis that the employer valued collaboration adds nothing to the panel’s analysis.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- HALLIBURTON COMPANY, Petitioner, v. ADMINISTRATIVE REVIEW BOARD, United States Department of Labor, Respondent
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published