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Jennifer Smith v. Florida Agricultural & Mechanical University Board of Trustees

Paid petition · United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, No. 19-12560 · judgment October 8, 2020


Certiorari denied · May 17, 2021
Pre-decision estimate: 0% cert probability

Before the decision, well below the 4.1% base rate: the model weighted this down for a self-represented petitioner.

Questions presented

The questions presented are:

  1. Whether, under federal equal pay laws, the employer unlawfully discriminated against a female employee by failing to apply its salary equity adjustment formula to her, as three circuits have held, because the outcome would result in a salary commensurate to the highest paid male (classified as an "outlier") in the employee's job category.

  2. When a female employee receives a revised salary based on unknown “other factors” after an unsuccessful challenge to her prior salary as discriminatory under federal equal pay laws and the employer does not apply its salary adjustment formula to her as it did for her male comparators, whether collateral estoppel bars her from challenging her revised salary because the issue was not actually litigated as held in New Hampshire v. Maine, 532 U.S. 742 (2001).

  3. When an employee’s salary is not increased to the minimal amount required under the employer’s salary equity formula, whether the loss of the higher salary is an “adverse employment action” under federal equal pay laws, and as defined under Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Company v. White, 548 U.S. 53 (2006).

Counsel of record

For petitioner
Jennifer Marie Smith
Law Office of Jennifer Smith

For respondent
—

Case

Subject area
Civil Rights (estimated from the questions presented, in the Supreme Court Database’s categories)

Conference history
Distributed for 1 conference

Order
Order list, May 17, 2021 · Certiorari denied

Proceedings

  1. May 17 2021
    Petition DENIED.
  2. Apr 21 2021
    DISTRIBUTED for Conference of 5/13/2021.
  3. Mar 03 2021
    Petition for a writ of certiorari filed. (Response due April 7, 2021)