Supreme Court Refuses Review of Sexual Harassment Case

The United States Supreme Court decided not to review an interesting sexual harassment case involving a 16-year old, female ice cream scooper. 

The issue in the case was whether a 16 year-old could ever find the sexual advances of an older male employee to be welcome.  Under the Meritor test in sexual harassment law, one of the prongs that must be met involves showing that the sexually harassing conduct was subjectively unwelcome by the victim of the harassment.  The argument here is that legally, because this situation involved a statutory rape under state law, the 16 year-old could not consent and therefore, as a matter of law, the advances were unwelcome.

The case is Jane Doe v. Oberweis Dairy, 04-3680 (7th Cir. July 28, 2006) and here is short summary of the case below via the Daily Chronicle of DeKalb:

The 16-year-old . . . filed a discrimination claim with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission alleging that she was subjected to inappropriate sexual advances.  A trial judge rejected the claim in part because he found that the girl "welcomed" Nayman's behavior.

The 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, however, said her views of Nayman's conduct were irrelevant because she is a minor. Her lawsuit against Oberweis could proceed, the appeals court said.

Here is the previous post on this case, with more details, from back in July 2006.

PS