In Iowa City, the Iowa Supreme Court ruled a dentist was within his legal rights when he fired his assistant for being too attractive.

This was the second time the case was being reviewed and the justices stand by their ruling explaining their reasoning on the court's site. The decision was made in a sex discrimination lawsuit, Melissa Nelson was suing Dr. James Knight who fired her for being too tempting even though he admits she was a great employee for over 10 years.

The court ruling details the extent of Knight's and Nelson' relationship as well as the circumstances of her termination. "During the last six months of Nelson's employment, Dr. Knight and Nelson started texting each other on both work and personal matters outside the work place. Both parties initiated texting." The relationship was friendly, both deny any flirtations. The document also states the dentist's wife, Jeanne Knight, was also employed at the practice and claimed Nelson treated her coldly at work. After the Knight family returned home from a family vacation and Jeanne found out her husband was texting Nelson the whole time she demanded he fired her stating, "she is a big threat to our marriage."

The first time the case was reviewed in December the justices ruled that because an employer's decision to terminate an employee they find too attractive is brought on by feelings and not gender, it wasn't an act of discrimination.

The court sided with Knight the second time around as well saying, "The issue before us is not whether a jury could find that Dr. Knight treated Nelson badly. We are asked to decide only if a genuine fact issue exists as to whether Dr. Knight engaged in unlawful gender discrimination when he fired Nelson at the request of his wife. For the reasons previously discussed, we believe this conduct did not amount to unlawful discrimination, and therefore we affirm the judgment of the district court," as reported on KCCI

All of Knight's previous assistant have been women, Nelson's replacement is also a woman.

One has to wonder how this dentist goes on if his self-control is so easily affected he had to fire his employee.