Does a woman's belly show at eight months of pregnancy enough to make a potential employer's question of "[h]ow much longer do you have" questionable?
You have to ask?
How do you feel about the follow-up question: do you have any other children?
She did. And she didn't get the job.
Oddly, the case turned on the question of whether the firm that chose not to hire Ann Gove waived a great argument — that the federal Arbitration Act favors construing unclear arbitration clauses in favor of arbitration. By a two to one vote, the First Circuit held that, because of the waiver, Maine law, which construes unclear contracts against the author, trumped any federal policy favoring arbitration. Gove v. Career Systems Development Corp., No. 11-2468 (1st Cir. July 18, 2012).
Let Blawgletter repeat: because of the waiver.
The dissenting judge cited a case in which the court enforced the rule that favors arbitration. And yet in the case he cited, Kristian v. Comcast Corp., 446 F.3d 25 (1st Cir. 2006), the court refused to compel arbitration.
He could have a point. Maybe not.