WP: Justices Let Age Bias Lawsuit Move Ahead

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/27/AR2008022703130.html

By Robert Barnes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, February 28, 2008; Page A06

The Supreme Court yesterday gave the benefit of the doubt to a FedEx worker who claimed age discrimination, and said her case should not be thrown out because of mistakes made by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The court ruled 7 to 2 that Patricia Kennedy's suit could move forward, even though her employer had not been notified by the EEOC that Kennedy and others had made charges against it, as the Age Discrimination in Employment Act requires.

The act says that a formal charge must be made with the agency before a lawsuit can be filed, and that in that interim, the EEOC is to notify the company, investigate the claim and seek conciliation between the employer and employee before lawyers and judges become involved.

At oral argument, it became clear that the form Kennedy filed with the EEOC sometimes was considered by the agency to constitute a formal charge, and sometimes not. Justices criticized the government for the inconsistency, and it responded that it is changing its policies.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy's opinion said that because of the lack of clarity on the part of EEOC, "both sides lost the benefits" of the informal dispute resolution process, and it again criticized the agency.

FULL story at link.

[1monster]

1. Even before I clicked on the link, I knew it woud be Scalia and Thomas who dissented.

If they ever come down on the correct side of an issue, I'll be sure that the issue of Global Warming is over, because not only Hell, but the whold damned Universe will have frozen over...