Cert Granted in Mach Mining

While we all digest today's rulings in Hobby Lobby and Harris v. Quinn, here is a brief look ahead to the next Term.  An update on the cert petitions highlighted in my last post: 

Cert was granted in EEOC v. Mach Mining.  The question presented is "Whether and to what extent a court may enforce the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's mandatory duty to conciliate discrimination claims before filing suit."  The Seventh Circuit held that the EEOC's purported failure to conciliate was not judicially reviewable and could not be raised as a defense to a discrimination claim.  This conciliation issue has been percolating in the lower courts for years, primarily in systemic cases.  Both the employer and the EEOC urged the Court to grant cert in this case.  Commissioner Feldblum offered her thoughts on the case in a guest post here.  

Cert was denied in Family Dollar Stores v. Scott.  We do not yet have a ruling on the cert petition in Young v. United Parcel Service.  According to SCOTUSBlog, we can expect an order in that case tomorrow. 

UPDATE: This morning the Court granted cert in Young v. UPS. This issue presented is: "Whether, and in what circumstances, the Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e(k), requires an employer that provides work accommodations to non-pregnant employees with work limitations to provide work accommodations to pregnant employees who are “similar in their ability or inability to work.”

-JB