Supreme Court will hear employee harassment case
Lawyer Blogs
A longtime local government worker is fired after she cooperates with an investigation of sexual harassment allegations against a high-ranking official. The Supreme Court said Friday it will decide whether federal civil rights law protects employees from such retaliation.
The justices agreed to review claims by Vicky Crawford, who was fired in 2003 after more than 30 years as an employee of the school system for Nashville, Tenn., and Davidson County.
Months earlier, investigators interviewed Crawford about the school district's director of employee relations, Gene Hughes, and Crawford told them Hughes had sexually harassed her and other employees.
The investigation found Hughes had acted inappropriately, but did not recommend that he been disciplined.
Instead, Crawford learned she faced charges of irregularities in her job as payroll coordinator, and she was fired. Crawford then filed a federal lawsuit claiming she had been dismissed in retaliation for alleging harassment by Hughes.
A U.S. district judge and a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit. The courts said the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act did not apply to Crawford because she didn't raise harassment claims on her own but merely responded to investigators' questions.
The Bush administration is supporting Crawford. "Internal investigations are an integral aspect of Title VII and there is no reason to leave cooperating witnesses unprotected," said Solicitor General Paul Clement.
The justices also will review a separate case involving age-discrimination claims filed by former workers at the Knolls Atomic Power Lab.
Related listings
-
US Court To Hear Review Of “Light” Cigarettes
Lawyer Blogs 01/20/2008The Supreme Court agreed Friday to a cigarette maker's request to decide whether tobacco companies can be sued under state law for allegedly deceptive advertising of "light" cigarettes.The tobacco industry is trying to head off a wave of state-based ...
-
Chief Justice Recuses Himself from Massey Case
Lawyer Blogs 01/18/2008[##_1L|1084929984.jpg|width="120" height="88" alt=""|_##]The chief justice of the state Supreme Court agreed Friday to remove himself from a pending case involving Massey Energy Co., days after vacation photos surfaced showing him in Monaco with the ...
-
Attorneys Press High Court To Hear Enron Investor Suit
Lawyer Blogs 01/18/2008A $40 billion lawsuit by Enron investors against several banks for orchestrating financing deals for the now-defunct energy trader is not dead, despite a recent Supreme Court decision that helps protect such third parties.In fact, some lawyers who re...
Grounds for Divorce in Ohio - Sylkatis Law, LLC
A divorce in Ohio is filed when there is typically “fault” by one of the parties and party not at “fault” seeks to end the marriage. A court in Ohio may grant a divorce for the following reasons:
• Willful absence of the adverse party for one year
• Adultery
• Extreme cruelty
• Fraudulent contract
• Any gross neglect of duty
• Habitual drunkenness
• Imprisonment in a correctional institution at the time of filing the complaint
• Procurement of a divorce outside this state by the other party
Additionally, there are two “no-fault” basis for which a court may grant a divorce:
• When the parties have, without interruption for one year, lived separate and apart without cohabitation
• Incompatibility, unless denied by either party
However, whether or not the the court grants the divorce for “fault” or not, in Ohio the party not at “fault” will not get a bigger slice of the marital property.