On May 9, 2025, NWLC and six other amici curiae joined Equal Rights Advocates, Outten & Golden LLP, and Mehri & Skalet PLLC in submitting an amicus brief to the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Sanchez v. El Milagro, Inc. The brief argues that the Seventh Circuit should overturn the district court’s ruling that plaintiff Alma Sanchez failed to show enough evidence of “severe or pervasive” workplace harassment to go to trial on her claims under Title VII and Illinois state law.

As the brief describes, Ms. Sanchez alleged three incidents of offensive, intimate touching (including her harasser intentionally rubbing his genitals against her and grabbing her buttocks), physically threatening or humiliating taunts, “near daily” sexist comments, and an overall environment where harassment was tolerated. But the district court wrongly concluded that none of this was enough to support her federal or state sex-discrimination claims. The brief explains that, in minimizing Ms. Sanchez’s experience, the district court failed to account for a significant body of social-science research demonstrating that her allegations were more than enough to create a hostile work environment for her—or, indeed, for any reasonable worker in her position. The court also made several all-too-common legal errors, including failing to view Ms. Sanchez’s allegations in light of the totality of the circumstances, imposing heightened burdens with no basis in law, and substituting its judgment for that of a jury. Finally, the brief notes, the district court erred in treating Ms. Sanchez’s state-law claim under the same standard as her federal Title VII claim because the Illinois legislature intentionally enacted an anti-harassment law that is broader in scope than federal law.