Supreme Court and Bush administration screw working people...again

[dajoki]

Justices Limit Discrimination Suits Over Pay
By LINDA GREENHOUSE
Published: May 29, 2007
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/29/washington/30scotuscnd.html?ex=1338091200&en=85f3ac69b121754e&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

WASHINGTON, May 29 — The Supreme Court made it harder today for many workers to sue their employers for discrimination in pay, insisting in a 5-to-4 decision on a tight timeframe to file such cases. Dissenters said the ruling ignored workplace realities.

<<snip>>

The court held today that employees may not bring suit under the principal federal anti-discrimination law unless they have filed a formal complaint with a federal agency within 180 days after their pay was set. The timeline applies, according to the decision, even if the effects of the initial discriminatory act were not immediately apparent to the worker and even if they continue to the present day.

<<snip>>

In an opinion by Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., the majority rejected the view of the federal agency, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, that each paycheck that reflects the initial discrimination is itself a discriminatory act that resets the clock on the 180-day period, under a rule known as “paycheck accrual.”

“Current effects alone cannot breathe life into prior, uncharged discrimination,” Justice Alito said in an opinion joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Antonin Scalia, Anthony M. Kennedy, and Clarence Thomas. Justice Thomas once headed the employment commission, the chief enforcer of workers’ rights under the statute at issue in this case, usually referred to simply as Title VII.

Under its longstanding interpretation of the statute, the commission actively supported the plaintiff, Lilly M. Ledbetter, in the lower courts. But after the Supreme Court agreed to hear the case last June, the Bush administration disavowed the agency’s position and filed a brief on the side of the employer.

[muntrv]

1. Bush will not stop until we are all working 18 hours a day for our daily bread & water.

[DU9598]

2. The Majority

The view of the majority simply ignores the law and the clear legislative history behind the law. The Supreme Court is moving toward becoming irrelevant as people will start turning to state courts where people will - in certain states - still have some justice. Remember, states have their own anti-discrimination laws. Wise lawyers will find ways to keep the cases in state court where the Alito's of the world do not have the reins of power.

Let's just hope they all get fed up with the pay scale and resign young ... could, perhaps, the Congress vote to cut the pay of Supreme Court justices - until they start producing judicial opinions and not big business directives?

[dajoki]

3. Alito is basically saying...

that as long as the discrimination was going on and they didn't get caught until now, its OK.