Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Fourth Circuit: State Courts Lack Jurisdiction over Title VII Claims
Jon Harkavy (Patterson & Harkavy) writes to tell us of Bullock v. Napolitano. Rather than re-invent the wheel, I'll just post Jon's description of the case:
[The] Fourth Circuit ...decision of [Bullock v. Napolitano], issued Monday afternoon, [] effectively forecloses the ability of a federal employee to file a Title VII decision in state court. Judge Niemeyer wrote the majority opinion based largely on Title VII's silence about a waiver of governmental immunity in state court suits. Judge Gregory wrote a dissent that provoked a somewhat pointed rejoinder by footnote in the majority opinion. The issue may be cert-worthy, especially if other circuits have disagreed with the majority. In any event, I thought readers of the blog (and their students) would be interested in the juxtaposition of the two opinions.
rb
https://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/2012/01/fourth-circuit-state-courts-lack-jurisdiction-over-title-vii-claims.html