Hypothetical Case
Genda Enlaw is a 35-year-old U.S. citizen of Jordanian descent. As an expression of her faith, she prefers
to practice hijab (by wearing a head scarf) in public places. Genda is a cis-gender woman married to a trans
woman, Wife, and together they parent their 2-year-old child, Junior. Genda is very newly pregnant, but she and
Wife are currently focused on Junior’s emerging health condition. Wife is the primary caregiver for Junior, and
Wife recently quit her job as an elementary school teacher’s aide to spend her full attention taking Junior to
health care appointments and trying to determine the nature and extent of Junior’s medical needs. Accordingly,
the Enlaw family relies on Genda’s income and health care benefits from her work as a data analyst at Pollitic
as their main source of support. Though she has been working there for the last five years, Genda has not yet
felt safe to be out/identify openly as gay/married to a woman at Pollitic.
Pollitic is a medium sized (approximately 75 employees) public opinion polling and statistical analysis
company in suburban southeast Michigan. The company is known for both the quality and predictive value of
their political polling. Genda works there on a full-time (40 hours/week), fixed schedule. As a data analyst, she
is responsible for “cleaning” and maintaining the quality of data that is brought in by the employees who
conduct polling surveys. Genda makes sure that the spreadsheet data is complete, accurate, and ready for
modeling and interpretation. The other analysts working in this area appear to be white men in their 20s.
Genda tries to be friendly with these men, and usually takes food breaks with/near them in the break room if
there is time. Despite these circumstances, Genda doesn’t feel like she shares her analyst colleagues’ expressed
interests in fantasy football and “Thirsty Thursday” bar nights. Genda will sometimes force a fake laugh when
her co-workers reference a female celebrity as “hot” or when they make the occasional gay joke. In fact, a few
years ago Genda overheard two co-workers mutter, “Muslim chicks are so uptight,” when they thought she
wasn’t listening. Since that time, Genda has avoided sharing break time with those particular men and has never
heard them mention the matter again.
Genda’s least favorite part of her job is the busy season around political elections. Due to the high-volume
voter polling, so much data is coming in that Genda often must stay late to process data and update spreadsheets
that she can’t complete during normal working hours. She understands that timely and accurate spreadsheets are
important to Pollitic, but she dreads the additional work because it keeps her from her family obligations.
Pollitic understands this increased workload around election-time, and has implemented a policy that all
employees are required to finish certain tasks each day, regardless of the amount of time/overtime required.
Pollitic also created new jobs for “supplemental analysts” (paying $5/hr less than what Genda earns), and are
positions held predominantly by women who appear to be white or Black and in their 30s. Supplemental
analysts are responsible for maintaining data quality from incoming political polling surveys and preparing it
for modeling and interpretation.
Genda was nervous about her 5-year performance review. All of her past reviews had been positive, but she
had never before told her supervisor, Boss, that she was married to a woman. Upon Genda’s disclosure about
Wife and the emerging needs of Junior, Boss said, “whoa, did you have to clear that with an imam?” Once her
co-workers learned, there were further comments. One analyst tried to joke it off by saying that Genda “should
‘man-up’ and let her wife do the work for Junior.” Given that comment, Genda was grateful that she hadn’t yet
announced her pregnancy to Boss or at work. Without knowing of Genda’s pregnancy, another analyst privately
confided to Boss that, “I hope Wife carries the pregnancies because we are too short staffed to lose anyone to
maternity leave.” Two weeks later, Boss gave Genda her first critical performance review, citing sloppy work
on spreadsheets and “not fitting in with the team during these challenging times.”
Within a month of this 5-year performance review, Boss reassigned Genda to work as a supplemental
analyst. Some of Genda’s new co-workers are upset with the forced overtime policy, but Genda continued to
meet performance expectations. Boss claimed that the data analyst-to-supplemental analyst job transfer was due
to changing client needs during an election, but Genda doubts Boss’ reason and wonders if she has a valid
discrimination claim. Presume Genda has hired you (an amazing attorney) on contingency to determine if she
has an employment discrimination claim against Pollitic.
Remember: Do not assume there is a clear result predicted from any one case we read.
1. Which identities does Pollitic see when it looks at Genda? Incorporate facts from the
hypo to support your answer.
2. List all of the possible/potential legal claims Genda could raise. For each claim, state the applicable law that
may have been violated and incorporate the facts/reasons from the hypo that support the claim. You do not
need to perform a full analysis of the claim (see Q3). I want to know what fact(s) related to which law(s) make
you think there might be a case.
3. Perform a discrimination analysis of the ONE claim you identified in Question 2 that you believe will give Genda
the best chance of proving discrimination (i.e., her strongest case). For this analysis you should include:
a. your reasoning for citing this as the strongest claim;
b. analysis of the law you are alleging was violated, including how Genda should set forth a case; and
c. any denials or defense strategies Pollitic might claim.
4. Perform a discrimination analysis of Genda’s chances of bringing a successful Title VII disparate impact claim
against Pollitic for their overtime policy.
5. How does Genda compare to the hypothetical “Mary” described by Carbado & Gulati? Include a discussion of
whether you thought Genda had any compelled identity performances at Pollitic.
6. Answer one additional question about the hypo:
Option 1: Genda sought legal assistance (from you) in this case. Explain what other options, if any,
Genda could use to address her employment concerns.
Option 2: Explain whether you think Genda made an autonomous decision to seek out legal assistance
