Obama Administration Seeks To Overturn Ledbetter Decision

The Jan. 4, 2009 New York Times is reported that President Elect Obama hopes to overturn the 2007 Ledbetter decision which narrowly interpreted the statute of limitations under Title VII which held that a charge must be filed within 180 days of the discriminatory act as opposed to when the plaintiff felt the effects of discrimination. It may be years until a plaintiff knows he or she is a victim of discrimination, if for example, his retirement check is lower than it should be. As the article states:

President-elect Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress are planning swift action to overturn a Supreme Court decision that made it much harder for people to challenge discrimination in employment, education, housing and other fields.

The decision, involving a woman named Lilly M. Ledbetter, who had accused her employer of sex-based pay discrimination, was issued in May 2007. Since then, courts around the country have gone far beyond the facts of that case and cited it as a reason for rejecting lawsuits claiming discrimination based on race, sex, age and disability.

In some cases, after initially ruling for employees, judges have reversed themselves and ruled in favor of employers. The judges said they had to switch because of the Supreme Court decision.

Mitchell H. Rubinstein