More Employment Law Cases for the U.S. Supreme Court
Labor and employment law issues, particularly in the context of the protection of federal anti-discrimination laws, are one of the significant subjects to be addressed on the Supreme Court’s docket during this current term. The Court will hear arguments from both employees and employers on issues ranging from age discrimination (Age Discrimination in Employment Act) and disability discrimination (Americans with Disabilities Act) protection to the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) filing issues to a case relating to retaliation under the Federal civil rights statutes. This was originally discussed in a recent Outside Counsel column in The New York Law Journal which referred to the Supreme Court’s employment law docket this term.
Among some of cases that the Court will decide will be whether the Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s protections against retaliation by one’s employer can be extended to Federal employees. Another case poses the question of whether the Age Discrimination in Employment Act’s requirement of filing a “charge” of discrimination is met by the filing by an employee with the EEOC of an intake questionnaire and accompanying affidavit. The Federal Civil Rights statutes will also be an area of focus for the Court. The statute at issue, 42 U.S.C. § 1981, does not contain the words “retaliation” or “retaliatory,” yet the question presented is whether a cause of action for race retaliation can be brought under the statute.
It is evident that the U.S. Supreme Court will be spending a great deal of its time grappling with the complex issues of labor and employment law. The employment law field is ever expanding and presents some of the most cutting-edge and developing legal issues of the day.
