Firing over military service
McLean v. Delta Air Lines
In brief
- Where it stands
- Dismissed
Petition denied.
- What it’s about
- McLean and other employees asked whether courts may apply a rule that can protect an employer who sincerely but mistakenly believes a worker broke a work rule, despite a federal law protecting military-service employment rights that requires employers to prove they would have taken the same action without the worker’s service.
- Who it affects
- The denial ended McLean and the other employees’ request for Supreme Court review, without a Supreme Court decision on their legal question.
Summary: written with AI from the case record.
What it's about
The Supreme Court refused to hear the case (denied review), so it did not decide that question.
USERRA protects workers’ employment rights tied to military service and requires employers to prove they would have taken the same action without that service.
Question presented
Whether the judge-made “honest belief” doctrine, applied in Title VII cases to insulate an employer that fires an employee based on a mistaken but sincerely held view that the employee violated a work rule, may be imported into USERRA cases to displace USERRA’s express affirmative defense, which requires the employer to “prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of” the employee’s protected military service—and, if it may, whether an employer’s assertedly “honest belief” can be resolved in the employer’s favor at summary judgment, when the existence, sincerity, and application of that belief present inherently factual questions reserved to the jury?
Documents
Docket activity
New analysis added
AI analysis generated: Case Briefing
AI analysis generated: Decision Record
Case data updated: summary, question_presented, generation_metadata
Case data updated: status
Show 6 moreShow fewer
Case data updated: question_presented, extraction_metadata
New document added
Case data updated: documents, description, proceeding_type
Case data updated: documents, description, document_url, proceeding_type
Case data updated: documents, description, document_url, proceeding_type
Brief added: Petition
Sources
Primary materials plus reporting. Best-effort analysis: this explainer relies on a mix of primary materials and trusted secondary sources. Official filings and opinions remain authoritative.