Supreme Court Petition Challenges Federal Rule That Denies Civil Rights to Millions of Unpaid Workers

June 6, 2025 — In a direct challenge to what critics call a "legal loophole," through which numerous meritorious claims have fallen, Dr. Cara Wessels Wells petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to extend Title VII protections to unpaid workers – potentially reshaping civil rights law.

Wells, a scientist and entrepreneur, alleges she was subjected to sexual harassment, retaliation, and abrupt exclusion from Texas Tech University’s business accelerator program – where she served as a mentor – after speaking out about the misconduct. The district court and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled she was not legally an “employee” because her work in 2022 was unpaid.

At the heart of her petition is a challenge to the Fifth Circuit’s application of the “threshold-remuneration” test, a rigid rule that categorically bars unpaid workers from Title VII protection. The petition argues that the rule contradicts both the text and intent of federal civil rights law and is inconsistent with how several other circuits treat unpaid employment relationships.

In the petition, received by the Court on June 4, 2025, Wells warns of the national consequences of the current circuit split:

“An unpaid volunteer firefighter in Tennessee (Sixth Circuit) may be able to prove she is an employee and hold her harasser accountable under Title VII, whereas her counterpart just across state lines in Mississippi (Fifth Circuit) could be categorically denied any recourse... Such an outcome is intolerable under a comprehensive federal civil rights statute and demands this Court’s intervention.”

Brewer partner and lead counsel for Wells, William A. Brewer III, says, “Protection from discrimination in the workplace should not hinge on whether or not you happen to draw a paycheck. The Fifth Circuit has turned Title VII into a privilege for the paid, not a right for the working.”

Wells filed her original complaint in March 2023, claiming she was subjected to years of sexual harassment and degradation at Texas Tech, and then denied compensation and patent royalties to which she was entitled. In the complaint, Wells describes the inner workings of a hierarchical system where TTU professors Dr. Samuel Prien and Dr. Lindsay Penrose allegedly took credit for her work, subjected her to harassment and humiliation, and retaliated when she complained to school leadership. Thereafter, the University shielded the professors from accountability.

While the Second, Fifth, and other circuits require financial compensation as a threshold for employment protection, the Sixth and Ninth Circuits instead apply a common-law agency test, examining the relationship’s totality. Wells' petition urges the Supreme Court to resolve this doctrinal rift and affirm that Title VII’s protections extend to those whose roles may be unpaid but whose labor is real.

Wells’ case is particularly timely given the prevalence of unpaid labor in internships, academic research, startups, and public service. Legal scholars call the remuneration rule “unduly rigid” and warn it leaves millions of non-traditional workers without recourse when harmed.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide later this year whether to take up the case.

Joining Mr. Brewer in representing Wells is Brewer partner Will Brewer IV and attorneys Jed Sexton and Lucia (Lucy) Arbor.