Larry Cherosky Thomas Jennings Anthony Clemons Vincent Faini v. William J. Henderson, Postmaster General in His Official Capacity

Last year, in National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. Morgan, 536 U.S. 101 , 122 S.Ct. 2061 , 153 L.Ed.2d 106 (2002), the Supreme Court substantially limited the continuing violations doctrine in the context of employment discrimination actions. The Court held that Title VII “precludes recovery for discrete acts of discrimination that occur outside the statutory time period” for filing claims. Id. at 117 , 122 S.Ct. 2061 . In this case, we consider the impact of Morgan on employment decisions that occurred outside of the limitations period, but were made pursuant to an allegedly discriminatory policy that remained in effect during the limitations period. We conclude that Morgan precludes recovery under these circumstances.

Factual Background

The four plaintiffs in this action, Larry Cherosky, Thomas Jennings, Anthony Clemons, and Vincent Faini (the “Employees”), are or were employees of the United States Postal Service at the Gateway facility in Eugene, Oregon. The Employees claim that they began having respiratory problems after the introduction of high speed mail sorting machines into the workplace. In October 1994, each of the Employees requested permission to use a…