U.S. Supreme Court rules discrimination action must be brought within the specified period.

Byline: David Ziemer

Discrimination in pay is a discrete act, and a discrimination action must be brought within the specified period, or it is time-barred, the U.S. Supreme Court held on May 29. In so holding, the decision re-verses the governing law in the Seventh Circuit. Lilly Ledbetter was employed by Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company from 1979 until 1998. In 1998, she sued in federal court, asserting a Title VII pay discrimination claim. The Eleventh Circuit reversed her award of backpay and damages, holding that a pay discrimination claim cannot be based on a decision that occurred prior to the last pay decision that affected the employee's pay during the charging period. The Supreme Court accepted review, but affirmed in a decision by Justice Alito. Justice Gins-burg dissented, in an opinion joined by Justices Stevens, Bre-yer, and Souter. The majority based its holding on a long line of cases requiring that a discrimination action be based on recent acts: United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U.S. 553 (1977); Delaware State College v. Ricks, 449 U.S. 250 (1980); Lorance v. AT&T Technolo-gies, Inc., 490 U.S. 900 (1989); and National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101 (2002). Quoting the opinion in Evans, the court iterated, "A discriminatory act which is not made the basis for a timely charge ... is merely an unfortunate event in history which has no present legal consequences." The court concluded that to hold to the contrary would "shift intent from one act (the act that consummates the discriminatory employment practice) to a later act that was not performed with bias or discriminatory motive. The effect of this shift would be to impose liability in the absence of the requisite intent." Turning to policy considerations, the court noted that permitting suit would allow lawsuits over pay decisions that could be 20 years old. In the case at bar, the court noted, the allegedly discriminatory decisions were made by a supervisor who has since died. The Dissent Justice Ginsburg's dissent...