Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services Incorporated et al. 1998
| Author | Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw |
| Pages | 659-664 |
Page 659
Petitioner: Joseph Oncale
Respondent: Sundowner Onshore Services Incorporated, John Lyons, Danny Pippen, and Brandon Johnson
Petitioner's Claim: That on-the-job sexual harassment by coworkers of the same sex is still sexual discrimination.
Chief Lawyers for Petitioner: Nicholas Canaday III
Chief Lawyers for Respondent: Harry M. Reasoner
Justices for the Court: Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Anthony M. Kennedy, Sandra Day O'Connor, Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, David H. Souter, John Paul Stevens, Clarence Thomas
Justices Dissenting: None
Date of Decision: March 4, 1998
Decision: Ruled in favor of Oncale by finding that one person harassing another person of the same sex is sex discrimination prohibited by federal law.
Significance: The ruling recognized the right of individuals to claim sexual harassment even when the threatening individual and the victim are of the same sex. The Court found that Title VII applies to all sexual harassment situations which affect a person's employment.
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Sex discrimination involves the selection of one person over another for a job or for promotion purely on the basis of their gender (sex). Discrimination against women in the workplace had a long history in the United States. Women were routinely paid less than male workers doing the same work, not considered for management positions, and barred from certain professions, such as lawyers and even serving on juries. To correct this longstanding bias against women, Congress passed Section VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that prohibited sex discrimination in employment. Title VII made it "an unlawful employment practice for an employer . . . to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation [pay], terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national origin." Discrimination against men by women was hardly considered an issue, not to mention sex discrimination between two women or two men. In fact, not until 1973 in Frontiero v. Richardson did the Court even recognize that men could be victims of sex discrimination.
A new kind of gender issue grew in the 1980s called sexual harassment. Sexual harassment usually meant that a person at work was demanding sex from another person in an harassing way. Often a supervisor would be demanding sexual favors in exchange for some favorable employment action, such as a promotion or even keeping a job. Less clearly sexual harassment could occur simply through constant workplace threats, insults, or ridicule, creating what is known as a "hostile work environment." In Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson (1986) the Supreme Court ruled for the first time that these types of sexual harassment...
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