Causal connections is required to have your EEOC discrimination claim accepted by the EEOC Administrative judge.
Most of the time in civil rights claims the evidence presented is not enough to establish a causal connections of any damages.
To win your EEOC discrimination claim, you must provide enough evidence and proof as possible. While we never know where the agency will attack your claim and try to throw it out on any weak grounds they can find, including not filing on time, filing to many discrimination’s that you cannot prove them all, contradicting depositions to name a few of the reasons for dismissing your claim. You must establish a prima facie and prove there are causal connections to have your claim accepted.
There is still a long way to go to winning your claim, and receiving an award, but at least your claim was not thrown out or denied.
In the example from an actual appeal from a complainant against the federal agency, the agency is trying to have the EEOC civil rights claim against discrimination thrown out entirely based on their claim the complainant did not prove a causal connections to the complaint. Besides making a claim, you must show how the discrimination caused damage to your life and prove that the award can make whole. At least this appears to be what the agency is fighting for.
The Commission rejects the agency’s complete denial of non-pecuniary damages, because the Commission finds that complainant has established a causal connections between a portion of the damages and the discrimination at issue.
The EEOC Administrative judge sometimes refers to themselves as the Commission, when making their decisions. While it sounds like more than one judge made the final decision, sometimes the judge has help from other judges or legal counsel within the EEOC. I have heard of them consulting at least two others when making decisions.