On June 24, 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court held in University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center v. Nassar that retaliation under Title VII must be proven according to traditional principles of but-for causation. Accordingly, to prevail on a retaliation claim under Title VII, a plaintiff must show that the employer's desire to retaliate was the but-for cause of the challenged employment action. This is the same causation standard that the Court recently held applied to claims brought under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. A different causation standard applies to status-based discrimination claims under Title VII (i.e., discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex and national origin), for which it suffices to show that the motive to discriminate was one of the employer's motives, or a "motivating factor," even if the employer also had other, lawful motives for the decision. The Court reasoned that the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which added the "motivating factor" causation standard for status-based discrimination claims, did not change the standard for retaliation claims.
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