Senate Judiciary Committee To Examine Impact Of SCOTUS Decisions In Age Discrimination, Arbitration Cases

WASHINGTON -- September 29, 2009 – Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) Tuesday announced that the Committee will hold a hearing to examine two Supreme Court decisions that have made it more difficult for workers to take employers to court for civil rights violations and, once there, more difficult for victims to prove workplace discrimination.

The hearing will focus on Circuit City v. Adams, which extended the scope of the Federal Arbitration Act to cover employment contracts, and Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., a recent decision that made it more difficult to prove age discrimination in the workplace. A narrowly divided Supreme Court issued 5-4 decisions in both cases.

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The hearing is one in a series that Leahy has chaired in the Judiciary Committee to examine the impact of Supreme Court decisions on Americans’ daily lives. Under Leahy’s chairmanship, the Committee has held hearings focused on the role of courts in interpreting laws meant to protect consumers, the use of federal regulations to preempt state laws, how recent Supreme Court decisions have shielded corporations engaged in misconduct, and on the widely reported Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire pay discrimination case.

Scheduled to testify at the hearing is Jamie Leigh Jones of the Jamie Leigh Foundation; Jack Gross, the plaintiff in Gross v. FBL Financial Services; and Professor Michael Foreman, the director of the Civil Rights Appellate Clinic at the Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law. Additional witnesses are expected to testify.

The hearing, “Workplace Fairness: Has the Supreme Court Been Misinterpreting Laws Designed to Protect American Workers from Discrimination,” will be held on Wednesday, October 7, at 10:00 a.m. in room 226 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. The hearing will be webcast live online.

Source: Senator Patrick Leahy