Blackburn v. Department of Social & Health Services

¶1 Nine employees (Employees) of Western State Hospital (WSH)1 assert that their employer has illegally taken race into account when making staffing decisions in response to patients’ race-based threats or demands. After a six-day bench trial, the trial court found that WSH managers issued a staffing directive that prevented African-American staff from working with a violent patient making threats over the course of one weekend in 2011. Despite this race-based staffing directive, the trial court entered a verdict for the State and dismissed Employees’ employment discrimination claims. We…