Adam McLean, et al. v. Delta Air Lines, Inc., a Delaware Corporation

T he Un i for me d S e r v ic e s Employ me nt a nd Reemployment Rights Act of 1994 (“USERRA”) prohibits civilian employers from denying servicemembers any benefit of employment “on the basis of” their membership in the uniformed services. 38 U.S.C. § 4311(a). Once an employee shows that military service was “a motivating factor” in an adverse employment action, the employer is liable “unless the employer can prove that the action would have been taken in the absence of such membership.” Id. § 4311(c)(1). The question presented is: 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.