Currier v. National Board of Medical Examiners

Summary

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court considered whether the National Board of Medical Examiners violated state civil rights, equal rights, public accommodation, and constitutional protections by refusing to provide a lactating medical student additional examination break time. The court held that the refusal did not constitute coercion under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act, but that lactation is a sex-linked classification protected by the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act and that the plaintiff was entitled to summary judgment on her public accommodation claim. The court declined to decide the constitutional claim because statutory grounds provided relief.

Holdings

1. The NBME's refusal to provide additional break time for Currier to express breast milk did not constitute coercion under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act because the NBME did not prohibit her from expressing breast milk altogether and offered a private room with a power outlet in which she could do so during the examination.
2. Lactation and the expression of breast milk are sex-linked classifications, and the protections of the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act extend to lactating mothers.
3. The Equal Rights Act requires purposeful sex discrimination and does not permit a disparate-impact theory, but Currier presented sufficient evidence to create a genuine issue of material fact regarding purposeful discrimination.
4. The NBME is subject to the Massachusetts public accommodation statute in connection with its testing services even though Prometric, rather than the NBME, supplied the physical testing location.
5. The public accommodation statute permits a disparate-impact claim, and its protection against sex discrimination extends to lactating mothers. On the undisputed record, Currier was entitled to summary judgment on this claim.
6. The court declined to decide Currier's constitutional privacy claim because the statutory claims provided an adequate basis for relief, and it declined to enter the NBME's requested declaratory judgment because that request sought an advisory opinion.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the NBME's refusal to provide additional examination break time for expressing breast milk constituted coercion under the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act.
2. Whether lactation is a sex-linked classification protected by the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act.
3. Whether Currier presented sufficient evidence of purposeful sex discrimination under the Massachusetts Equal Rights Act to avoid summary judgment.
4. Whether the NBME and its contracted testing services were subject to the Massachusetts public accommodation statute despite the NBME's lack of a physical testing site.
5. Whether the public accommodation statute permits a disparate-impact claim and protects lactating mothers as a sex-linked class.
6. Whether the court should decide Currier's Massachusetts constitutional privacy claim or the NBME's requested declaratory relief concerning its policy.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded