Cornelius Cooper v. Southern Company
Is it still good law? What later courts have actually done to this case.
Status
More on how this was screened
The other reviewed opinions continued to apply Cooper's unaffected class-certification, expert-disclosure, comparator, discrimination, and pretext rules. Nearly all nearby “overruled” language appeared in history parentheticals reporting Ash's act; the remaining treatment words concerned motions, objections, other authorities, or factual disputes rather than Cooper.
489 later cases cite Cornelius Cooper v. Southern Company; 131 of those citations sat close to treatment language and were flagged for reading, and all of them have been read. Citations that did not sit near treatment language were not flagged and were not read one by one, so a court that weakened this case without using any of that language would not appear here.
Relying on Cornelius Cooper v. Southern Company?
This page shows what later courts did to it. Ask about your specific facts and see whether it still carries your argument, with citations you can check.
Treatments
Overruled in Part
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The Supreme Court rejected Cooper's “jump off the page and slap you in the face” formulation as an unhelpful and imprecise standard for deciding whether superior qualifications show employment-discrimination pretext.
Ash v. Tyson Foods, Inc. · Supreme Court of the United States · filed
The Court of Appeals, in finding petitioners’ evidence insufficient, cited one of its earlier precedents and stated: “Pretext can be established through comparing qualifications only when ‘the disparity in qualifications is so apparent as virtually to jump off the page and slap you in the face.’ ” Ibid. (quoting Cooper v. Southern Co., 390 F. 3d 695, 732 (CA11 2004)). ... The visual image of words jumping off the page to slap you (presumably a court) in the face is unhelpful and imprecise as an elaboration of the standard for inferring pretext from superior qualifications. ... It suffices to say here that some formulation other than the test the Court of Appeals articulated in this case would better ensure that trial courts reach consistent results.
Read the full opinion on CourtListener →
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