As a second Trump administration approaches, we’re running out of time to confirm as many federal judges as possible to provide a check on his presidential power and curb his stated policy priorities.
There are 40 federal judicial vacancies and 16 nominations before the Senate right now—as our civil rights hang in the balance, take action now!
*** UPDATE! VICTORY! *** On August 28, 2024, the Sixth Circuit unanimously reversed the lower court’s grant of summary judgment in favor of the University on all of Meng’s claims! In doing so, the court held that whether Meng was an employee while she was a graduate student at The Ohio State University, which would also provide her with protections under Title VII, is a fact question for a jury to decide. This is an important victory for Meng and all students who work for their schools and suffer harassment—especially in light of the Supreme Court’s misguided decision in Cummings, which many lower courts have since used to foreclose student survivors from obtaining emotional distress damages under Title IX.
On September 7, 2023, NWLC joined an amicus brief led by Public Justice explaining that graduate students can be both employees and students—and therefore can be covered by both Title VII and Title IX’s protections against sex harassment.
This case is about a graduate student, Meng Huang, whose supervisor sexually harassed her while she was a mechanical engineering PhD student and employee of The Ohio State University. Consistent with her dual roles, Ms. Huang brought claims under both Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits sex discrimination in the workplace, and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in schools. The district court, however, wrongly assumed that Ms. Huang could not simultaneously be a student and an employee protected by both laws.
Our brief argues that courts should look to the reality of the student’s relationship to the university to determine whether a graduate student is also an employee and therefore covered by Title VII—and shouldn’t defer to schools’ classifications of their graduate students. As the brief points out, this issue has significant implications for many graduate students, because Title VII offers more expansive protections and remedies than Title IX. A graduate student wrongly classified as only a student could, therefore, be deprived of any legal recourse.
