Salazar
Salazar v. U.S. Department of Justice
Opinion
Lead Opinion
MEMORANDUM *
Michelle Salazar appeals the district court’s grant of summary judgment on her Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e claims. The parties know the facts, and we recite them here only as necessary. We affirm summary judgment on Salazar’s hostile environment claim and remand for reconsideration of her retaliation claim.
Salazar first argued that her supervisor subjected her to a sexually and racially hostile work environment. Salazar suffered no tangible employment action, and thus Defendants may assert the affirmative defense enunciated in Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth 2 and Faragher v. City of Boca Raton. 3 The Ellerth/Faragher defense shields an employer from liability for a supervisor’s harassment of an employee when the harassment results in no tangible employment action and two necessary elements are met: “(a) that the employer exercised reasonable care to prevent and correct promptly any sexually harassing behavior, and (b) that the plaintiff employee unreasonably failed to take advantage of any preventive or corrective opportunities provided by the employer or to avoid harm otherwise.”