State Employee Partially Successful In Title VII Claim

In Atwood v. Oregon Department of Transportation, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 22369 (D OR, March 20, 2008), a state employee alleged that his free exercise rights and Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act were violated when one of his supervisors harshly questioned him and threatened to fire him because he refused to work on Sundays for religious reasons. An Oregon federal district court held that the supervisor did not have qualified immunity for his conduct, but dismissed a portion of the employee's lawsuit-- his allegations of hostile work environment and retaliation. Plaintiff's factual allegations did not support these two claims.