Goss Graves admitted that this is the case, but though “It is possible,” the ruling still makes it “really, really tough.”
The Vance decision is one of many ways the Court has recalibrated–often restricting–its approach to employee rights in harassment or discrimination cases in recent years. Goss Graves recalled that not so long ago the Supreme Court decided in Ledbetter v. Goodyear that the window during which an employee could file a suit for pay discrimination must be filed within 180 days of the pay decision. But Lilly Ledbetter, the plaintiff in that case, had been unaware that she’d been subjected to pay discrimination for years.
As a result, Congress passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act in 2009, a rather narrow law that said each subsequent paycheck after the pay decision counted as a new instance of pay discrimination and therefore could be subject to a lawsuit.
Congress could do the same with Vance v. Ball State, amending Title VII of the Civil Rights Act — which turns 50 next year — to say that a supervisor is defined as someone with authority over an employee’s actions on the job, regardless of his or her power over the employee’s pay or employment status.
Even though Vance hasn’t gotten much attention, Goss Graves and other activists remain optimistic that Congress will take up the issue. “The Ledbetter v. Goodyear decision came down in 2007 and it wasn’t until 2009 that it was signed into law. But once the public starts to really hear about the chipping away of rights for workers in the workplace, I think that we’ll see some movement on the Hill,” she said.
Article Appeared @http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2013/07/the-supreme-court-ruling-on-workplace-harassment-that-got-buried/277826/