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Family Law Keyed to Weisberg
California Federal Savings & Loan Association v. Guerra
Facts
California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act (FEHA) prohibited discrimination in employment and housing. California amended the statute to proscribe certain types of employment discrimination based on pregnancy. Subdivision (b)(2) applied to employers subject to Title VII and required them to provide female employees unpaid pregnancy disability leave for up to four months. Respondent Fair Employment and Housing Commission is authorized to interpret the FEHA, and interpreted it to require California employers to reinstate an employee returning from the pregnancy leave to the job previously held unless the position is no longer available due to business necessity. If it is no longer available, the employer must make a reasonable, good faith effort to place the employee in a substantially similar job. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 also prohibits employment discrimination based on sex, but previous case law (General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U.S. 125 (1976)) determined that discrimination based on pregnancy was not sex discrimination under Title VII. In response to Gilbert, Congress passed the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA), which specified that sex discrimination includes discrimination on the basis of pregnancy. Petitioner California Federal Savings and Load Association is an employer covered by Title VII. Petitioner has a facially neutral leave policy that permits employees who have completed three months of service to take unpaid leaves of absence for reasons including pregnancy. Petitioner tries to provide employees taking a leave of absence with a similar position upon returning, but reserves the right to terminate an employee if a similar position is not available. Lillian Garland was employed by Petitioner and took a pregnancy disability leave. Upon returning she found her job had been filled and there where no similar positions available. She filed a complaint with the Fair Employment and Housing Commission. Petitioner brought this action seeking a declaration that the Cal. Statute is inconsistent with and pre-empted by Title VII and an injunction against enforcement. The district court granted Petitioner’s motion for summary judgment, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed .
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