Britney v. Brittany

You've probably heard about the Britney Spears case. You may not have heard about the "Brittany Spiers" case handed down last week by the Mississippi Supreme Court.

After losing her job, Spiers filed suit. Spiers said that her supervisor told her she was fired because she was pregnant, referred to Spiers' pregnancy as a disease, and commented that women with children shouldn't be working.

A majority of our state's justices held that, even if the supervisor did say all of this, it still wouldn't be enough for a claim of intentional infliction of emotional distress. According to the court, these statements didn't meet the standard because they were "mere insults" and not so extreme as to be "utterly intolerable in a civilized community."

This seems like the wrong result. What is "utterly intolerable" is different for everyone, but I'd hope that most folks in society would not tolerate this type of overt pregnancy discrimination.