Jay Bauer, an intelligence analyst for the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Chicago, is suing the FBI over a single pushup. Bauer was an assistant professor in communications sciences at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, when he left to join the bureau in 2009.  

 

He passed the fitness test to become a special agent trainee before going to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Virginia, where he performed well in everything from firearms training to academics. But when it came time to do 30 pushups, Bauer was able to only do 29. He claims in his lawsuit it was after he failed to do the required number of pushups that the FBI booted him out of the special agent training.

 

Bauer alleges gender discrimination because women are only required to perform 14 pushups. In addition, his attorney cites a case in which a female trainee was given the opportunity to retake the fitness test, while he was not.

 

Bauer has spent the last two years working as an FBI analyst and filed his lawsuit only after failing to win over an administrative court.

-David Wallechinsky, Noel Brinkerhoff