Two-Part Discussion:

Part One:

• Should other protected classes be recognized under federal law?
  • If so, which ones and why? If not, why not?
• Should any current protected classes no longer be eligible for protection?
  • If so, which ones and why? If not, why not?

Part Two:

Alice is a manufacturing manager at a location that had experienced several instances of racially-derogatory graffiti in the bathroom in the past few months. An anonymous complaint was made to the company's Code of Conduct hotline that the graffiti was reported locally but management "looked the other way." The leader from the corporate investigations team liaised with you, the local HR manager, for assistance. You have been instructed to escalate all instances of graffiti and other reported allegations of discrimination or harassment to the corporate investigator until further notice. You did as you were instructed and promptly reported issues to the corporate investigator.

One afternoon, Alice called you into her office. Alice said that everyone "up there in corporate" is "wound up so tightly" about the graffiti, and not everything she tells you is intended for others to hear. She went on to say that "you work for me and I want to clarify that your role is not to be an intermediary and pass along everything I say". Alice then continued "in order for things to work out between us, I need to be able to trust you to keep the things I say between us". She ended the conversation by saying that you two could start with a "fresh slate" and that she likes you as a person but repeated that "I just need you to know that you work for me and some things need to be kept at the site-level".

What would you do? In providing your explanation, please specifically discuss legal claims that could be raised against the company in this scenario.