The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case that could have resolved a split-circuit dispute over the standard of evidence needed for an employee’s retaliation claim to survive summary judgment under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Many courts, including those at the circuit level, have required that such claims meet the “but for” standard the high court set for Title VII civil rights claims in 2013. That standard requires an employee to show that, but for his exercise of the protected action, he would not have faced retaliation and that the reason for the retaliation was simply a pretext.