Equal Employment Opportunity Commission v. Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps

Opinion by Judge TASHIMA; Partial Concurrence and Partial Dissent by Judge PREGERSON; Dissent by Judge REINHARDT.

OPINION

Donald Scott Lagatree was refused employment as a legal secretary by Luce, Forward, Hamilton & Scripps LLP (“Luce Forward”) because he refused to sign an agreement to arbitrate all claims arising from his employment. Lagatree unsuccessfully sued Luce Forward in California *744 state court. On Lagatree’s behalf, however, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (“EEOC”) brought this action against Luce Forward for retaliation in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (“Title VII”), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-3, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12203 (a), the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (“ADEA”), 29 U.S.C. § 623 (d), and the Equal Pay Act of 1963 (“EPA”), 29 U.S.C. § 215 (a). The EEOC sought make-whole relief, lost wages and benefits, as well as emotional distress and punitive damages for Lagatree. The EEOC also sought a permanent injunction forbidding Luce Forward from (1) requiring that employees sign arbitration agreements as a condition of employment, and (2) engaging in unlawful retaliation.

The…

with whom SCHROEDER, Chief Judge, and REINHARDT, Circuit Judge, join, dissenting in part and concurring in part 1 :

I dissent. Congress in enacting the Civil Rights Act of 1991 did not intend that employers could force their employees as a mandatory condition of employment to forego their right to bring future Title VII claims in a court of law. In overruling Duffield v. Robertson Stephens & Co., 144 F.3d 1182 (9th Cir.1998), cert. denied, 525 U.S. 982 , 119 S.Ct. 445 , 142 L.Ed.2d 399 (1998), the majority opinion allows employers to force their employees to choose between their jobs and their right to bring future Title VII claims in court. That choice is no choice at all.

More than three-quarters of a century ago, Andrew Furuseth, then president of the International Seaman’s Union of America, said in opposition to the Federal Arbitration Act as originally proposed: “Will such contracts be signed? Esau agreed [to give up his first birthright], because he was hungry. ... With the growing hunger in modern society, there will be but few that will be able to resist.” Proceedings of the 26th Annual Convention of the International Seaman’s Union of America 203-04 (1923). This holds…

with whom PREGERSON, Circuit Judge, joins, dissenting:

While I join Judge Pregerson’s dissent fully, I write separately to emphasize two points.

1. In 1991, Congress decided it would no longer tolerate the federal judiciary’s assault on Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Motivated by a series of highly conservative Supreme Court decisions that “seriously undermine[d] the effectiveness of Title VII,” H.R.Rep. No. 40(1) at 80, reprinted in 1991 U.S.C.C.A.N. 549, Congress adopted, and the first President George Bush signed, the Civil Rights Act of 1991. In that Act, Congress took the extraordinary step of explicitly overturning several Supreme Court decisions — decisions “Congress thought represented an unduly narrow and restrictive reading of Title VII,” Duffield v. Robertson Stephens & Co., 144 F.3d, 1182, 1190 (9th Cir.1998) — and replacing them with statutory provisions designed to protect the civil rights of American workers. Among those provisions was one that for the first time gave working men and women the right to trial by jury in Title VII race and sex discrimination cases. Civil Rights Act of 1991, § 102(c), 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(c). It also directed the federal…