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Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - Significance, Mandatory Maternity Leave, A Violation Of Due Process?, Impact, Maternity Leave, Further Readings

petitioners court william school

Petitioners

Cleveland Board of Education, et al.

Respondents

Jo Carol LaFleur, Ann Elizabeth Nelson

Petitioners' Claim

That a school board policy mandating that pregnant teachers go on an unpaid leave of absence beginning five months before the expected birth of the child and ending the school semester after the child is three months old was constitutional under the Fourteenth Amendment.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioners

Charles F. Clarke

Chief Lawyer for Respondents

Jane M. Picker

Justices for the Court

Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., William O. Douglas, Thurgood Marshall, Lewis F. Powell, Jr., Potter Stewart (writing for the Court), Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting

Warren E. Burger, William H. Rehnquist

Place

Washington, D.C.

Date of Decision

21 January 1974

Decision

Denied the petitioners' claim and upheld the ruling of the court of appeals that the school board's policy regarding mandatory unpaid leave for pregnant teachers violated the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment and was not legally binding.

Related Cases

  • Prince v. Massachusetts, 321 U.S. 158 (1944).
  • Griswold v. Connecticut, 381 U.S. 479 (1965).
  • Roe v. Wade, 410 U.S. 113 (1973).
  • Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U.S. 484 (1974).

Sources

Eberlein, Tamara. "Get the Best Maternity Leave for You (and Your Baby)." Redbook, December 1997.

Sturgeon, Jeff. "General Electric Workers' Suit Paved Way for Paid Maternity Leave." Knight-Ridder/Tribune Business News, 12 October 1998.

Additional Topics

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - Further Readings

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - Significance

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - Mandatory Maternity Leave

The second half of the twentieth century witnessed a rapid expansion of the role and status of women outside the home. As women increasingly occupied important positions in business and the professions, they were often faced with archaic rules governing gender-related health issues. Among such rules were those that enabled employers to dismiss or force into unpaid leave of absence those workers wh…

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - A Violation Of Due Process?

The Court held the policy to be unconstitutional under the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment by a 7-2 margin. Writing for the majority, Justice Stewart noted that the Court had long since established that "freedom of personal choice in matters of marriage and family life is one of the liberties protected by the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment" in numerous cases, includi…

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - Impact

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur marked a milestone in the legal status of women in the workplace. With mandatory maternity leaves, not to mention the arbitrary firing of employees who became pregnant, rendered effectively unconstitutional, employers were forced to devise human resources policies more accommodating to the unique needs of women. Significantly, however, the Court found the po…

Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur - Maternity Leave

In December of 1997, the women's magazine Redbook ran a long series of articles advising women how to make the most of the maternity-leave opportunities afforded by the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993. The latter guarantees 12 weeks of unpaid leave for the 2.1 million working American women who give birth or adopt children each year, but according to the article, its provisions do not go far …

Coker v. Georgia - Significance, On Appeal, The Verdict, Nothing Left To Lose, Ginsburg Revisits Her Brief [next] [back] Central Hudson Gas and Electric Corp. v. Public Service Commission of NewYork - Significance, The Four-part Test, Questioning The Four-part Test, Further Readings

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over 2 years ago

i was trying to find the number for cleve. board of education -my kids go to cleve. schools and i have to call them thank you