A Jewish police officer may sue his department for maintaining a hostile work environment based on derogatory comments made by supervisors and colleagues, a New Jersey court has ruled.

In Cutler v. Dorn (No. A-51-07, July 31, 2008), the New Jersey Supreme Court reinstated a jury verdict in the plaintiff's favor.

Jason Cutler, who worked for a municipal police department, alleged that his supervisors made anti-Semitic jokes and comments in his presence. He conceded that the comments may have been poor attempts at humor, but he found them offensive.

The plaintiff also recounted an incident in which colleagues placed Israeli and German flag stickers on his locker, and one incident when he overheard a fellow officer blurt out, "Those dirty Jews."

When he sued the city and city officials for religious discrimination under New Jersey law, the defendants argued that the complained-of conduct was not sufficiently severe or pervasive to support a hostile-environment claim.

To the contrary, the court said, "the comments demonstrated anti-Semitic bigotry that has no place in a workplace in this state. The trial court correctly recognized that the plaintiff's case should be decided by a jury and further determined, correctly, that the jury's verdict had adequate support in the record."

In reaching its decision, the court explicitly held that "the threshold for demonstrating a religion-based, discriminatory hostile work environment cannot be any higher or more stringent than the threshold that applies to sexually or racially hostile workplace environment claims."

Case law has continued to define what constitutes a hostile workplace. The type of protected class for purposes of a discriminatory action does not change that dicta.

This case is important in that it equates religiously, sexually and racially hostile workplaces in applying and meeting threshold standards.

Lindy Korn is a Buffalo lawyer with a solo practice and is CEO of Diversity Training - Workplace Solutions Inc. She can be reached at lkorn@diversitytraining.com.