The Scariest Pending Supreme Court Case That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

[Tx4obama]

The Scariest Pending Supreme Court Case That You’ve Probably Never Heard Of

Jun 24, 2013 at 9:00 am

When the Supreme Court starts handing down decisions just one hour from now, most Court watchers will be awaiting four high profile cases — the two race cases that will decide the fate of affirmative action and the Voting Rights Act, and the two marriage equality cases. A fifth case, however, could prove just as significant as these much better known cases — and could potentially leave thousands of workers virtually helpless in the face of racial and sexual harassment.

The law provides very robust protections to employees who are harassed by their supervisors, but it is drastically more difficult for an employee to win a racial or sexual harassment lawsuit if they have only been harassed by coworkers. In the later case the worker must show that their employer has “been negligent either in discovering or remedying the harassment.” For this reason, it matters a great deal who qualifies as a “supervisor” for purposes of sexual harassment law. If the word is defined too narrowly, it could encompass employees who have the power to intimidate their victims into keeping their harassment secret.

That’s more or less what the lower court did in Vance v. Ball State University, which is now pending before the Supreme Court. According to the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit, a “supervisor” is someone whose authority “primarily consists of the power to hire, fire, demote, promote, transfer, or discipline an employee.” Employees who can assign tasks to other workers, or even those who direct their day to day activity, don’t count.

-snip-

Full article here: http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/06/24/2200681/the-scariest-pending-supreme-court-case-that-youve-probably-never-heard-of/

[JustAnotherGen]

1. Decision on this one

Sucks. I think te Voting Rights Act is in danger.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. .

.

[LeftInTX]

3. Thx- Didn't even know about this till I saw your post

Grrhhhhhh---5-4 in favor of corporations

[okaawhatever]

4. They are already the most pro-business scotus in history. I can't imagine what adding this

decision to the stats will do. Now we know why Bush withdrew Roberts nomination for regular scotus judge when the chief justice announced his retirement, and then nominated him for chief justice. He was really young so Bush knew we'd be screwed on a lot of things and it would last forever.