⚖ Oral Arguments, with Context

The Second Circuit considers an emergency medical technician's claim that her employer punished her for complaining about discrimination. In 2019, the company moved her into medical billing days after learning of her state human rights complaint. It later sent her a termination letter citing job abandonment. She says the transfer was forced and the explanation about investigating her complaints was a cover for retaliation. The company says billing was a temporary arrangement and that she stopped reporting for work. The district court dismissed her claim without a trial. Summary judgment allows a case to end without trial if no genuine dispute over facts material to the legal outcome remains. Pretext means the employer's stated reason was not the real reason. But-for causation means the employment action would not have happened without retaliation, not that retaliation was the only cause. The appeal asks whether her evidence was sufficient for a jury to find retaliation behind the company's explanations.

Freckleton v. Ambulnz NY LLC (No. 25-2644) — U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, argued October 30, 2026.