Overview
On May 29, 2026, Cohen Milstein and Kator, Parks, Weiser & Wright, PLLC filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of women who applied for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Officer positions and were denied employment because of CBP’s discriminatory pre-employment fitness tests. Specifically, the plaintiffs claim that CBP’s push-up requirements for applicants in its pre-employment assessments discriminate against women in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
According to the complaint, the push-up requirements, which have no relation to job performance, are arbitrary and create an unlawful barrier to entry for female candidates. CBP implemented and continues to use the push-up requirements, despite evidence that the tests disproportionately exclude women, and despite the availability of nondiscriminatory alternatives.
Case Background
Since 2009, CBP has required applicants and trainees for the CBP Officer position to meet timed push-up requirements at various stages of the hiring process:
- 12 push-ups in one minute on the first pre-employment fitness test,
- 17 push-ups in one minute on a second pre-employment fitness test used until 2017, and
- 24 push-ups in one minute on the Fitness Graduation Standard administered at the end of the CBP Field Operations Academy.
The plaintiffs allege that those cut-offs have operated as unlawful barriers to entry for women, who are screened out at substantially higher rates than men. Because of well-established physiological differences in upper-body strength, requiring women and men to perform the same number of push-ups imposes a significantly greater burden on women. As a result, women who are otherwise qualified, who passed other parts of the hiring process, and who are capable of performing the CBP Officer job have been denied employment simply because they missed an arbitrary push-up threshold.
The plaintiffs allege that the challenged push-up requirements are not necessary to identify applicants who can safely and effectively perform the CBP Officer job. The ability to complete a fixed number of push-ups in one minute is not a minimum qualification for successful job performance. And CBP chooses to implement the push-up requirements even though less discriminatory alternatives are available that measure actual job ability without imposing an unnecessary sex-based barrier. Notably, once they become permanent employees, CBP officers are never asked to meet the push-up requirements again, even though CBP maintains re-certification requirements for job-related responsibilities, like handgun safety.
The plaintiffs further claim that CBP knew before adopting the push-up requirements in 2009 that they would disproportionately exclude women, and its own data confirmed the same pattern after implementation of the tests. Despite evidence that women were being disproportionately screened out, CBP has continued to use the push-up requirements.
Plaintiffs bring this class action on behalf of themselves and other women who were denied employment as CBP Officers because they failed to meet one or more of CBP’s push-up cut-offs.