The protection in three-person constellations at the federal level is provided by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, the Americans With Disability Act (ADA), the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) and the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA), but not all of them directly address the concept of associated discrimination.

The only federal law that explicitly prohibits associational discrimination is the Americans With Disability Act (ADA). Under the ADA, it is not permissible to exclude a qualified person from equivalent work because of the known disability of a third person associated with the qualified person. In addition, the Act contains a provision that employees may not be penalised for assisting colleagues in exercising their rights under the ADA. This explicit prohibition was triggered by the case of a woman in Kentucky who was dismissed after her employer learned that the plaintiff was living with and caring for her son who had AIDS.