Lovland v. Employers Mutual Casualty Company

Whether, when an employee takes leave protected under the Family and Medical Leave Act, 29 U.S.C. §" 2601 et seq. (FMLA), and the employer later uses the employee"s FMLA-protected absences as a negative factor in an employment decision, the employer"s conduct establishes impermissible interference with the employee"s FMLA rights without any further proof of intent (as the Third and Ninth Circuits, following a regulation issued by the Secretary of Labor, have held), or the employee must prove that the employer"s proffered reasons for the adverse decision were a pretext for discrimination under the burden-shifting analysis set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, as several other circuits have held.