Norton Healthcare, Inc. v. Deng

OPINION OF THE COURT BY

CHIEF JUSTICE MINTON

In cases where the employee must show that he applied for the position in question in order to establish a prima facie claim for employment discrimination, some courts have applied the futile-gesture doctrine to excuse this application requirement if the employee can show that the employer’s consistently enforced discriminatory policy made applying for the position a pointless exercise. The Court of Appeals cited the futile-gesture doctrine to rescue Lual A. Deng’s (Aker) post-termination retaliation claim from summary judgment granted by the trial…