STERLING JEWELERS V. EEOC

​​Issue: Employment
Court: U.S. Supreme Court
Lower Court: U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit

​Question Presented:
​Whether the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit erred when it concluded, as a matter of first impression, that the Supreme Court’s standard for judicial review of the EEOC’s statutory duty to conciliate, described in Mach Mining, applies equally to the EEOC’s statutory duty to investigate, despite the significant and material differences between the duty to attempt conciliation and the duty to conduct an investigation.

RLC's Position:
The RLC joined a brief in support of a petition for certiorari in a case where the Second Circuit improperly extended the U.S. Supreme Court’s holding in EEOC v. Mach Mining, which only applied to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's (EEOC’s) duty to conciliate, to hold that a court cannot review the EEOC’s pre-suit investigation efforts. The brief asks the Court to grant review to provide clarity as to the standard for evaluating the EEOC's fulfilment of its pre-suit charge investigation responsibilities as required by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If left unchanged, the Second Circuit's holding would allow the EEOC to simply state that it investigated a charge and would remove any opportunity for an employer to challenge the EEOC's assertion. 

Case Outcome:
The Court denied the petition. 

Procedural History and Case Documents:

• Sterling Jewelers' Petition for Certiorari filed April 2016
• Petition denied October 2016

Please use the DOWNLOAD button below to access the RLC's Brief.