BREAKING: Supreme Court Dismisses Title VII Cat's Paw Case; Other Cat's Paw Cases Waiting In Wings

Update: On his Supreme Court Times Blog, Ross offers some speculation and opinion into why BCI might have decided to dismiss the case.

This just in via Ross' Employment Law Blog (via SCOTUSblog):

One of the biggest employment law cases of the year[, BCI Coca-Cola Bottling v. EEOC (docket 06-341),] will be dismissed from the US Supreme Court's docket by agreement of the parties . . . .

The case was to be argued on April 18. That argument will be cancelled.

We had recently written about Ross' prediction about this case here.

SCOTUSblog also has this recent update which indicates that the Court's may still choose to review the cat's paw issue in another case:

The Supreme Court will consider this week a potential sequel to the [BCI] case . . . that is to be dismissed imminently. Thanks to Public Citizen for pointing out that Ray v. CSX Transportation (06-405) is to be considered at the Court's Conference on Friday. The Court had denied review in the case on Nov. 27, but a rehearing petition was filed, and the Court asked for and received a response to that from CSX. The Fourth Circuit Court opinion discusses the subordinate bias issue only briefly; its opinion can be found at this site, by entering docket number 05-1623; it was decided May 23, 2006.

SCOTUSblog also notes another potential vehicle for deciding this issue:

If the Court still remains interested in the legal question, as it very likely is, the same issue is pending in Sawicki v. Morgan State University (06-306); available for download here.  The Court considered that case on Jan. 5 along with the BCI case.  The Sawicki case involves a final judgment -- a summary ruling in favor of the employer. In that case, the judgment was based upon Fourth Circuit precedent in 2004 (Hill v. Lockheed Martin Logistics Management). 

I will update readers on any new developments as they come to my attention.

PS