Fifth Circuit Refuses to Ditch 50-Year-Old Bias Test in P&G Case

The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit has maintained its use of a decades-old test for workplace discrimination, despite criticism from Supreme Court justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

The test, established in the 1973 McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green decision, requires employees to prove a basis for their bias claim through a multi-step process.

A fired Procter & Gamble Co. worker had asked the Fifth Circuit to reconsider this precedent, but the court stuck with it.

Two conservative appellate judges on the panel signaled that they might be willing to revisit the test in a future case, however.