NT Lakis Attorneys File Brief with En Banc Seventh Circuit, Urging Court To Overturn Troubling Panel Ruling Allowing EEOC To Resume Charge Investigation After Trial Court Finds No Violation

NT Lakis attorneys have filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief with the full Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals urging reversal of a troubling ruling by a three-judge panel that gives unprecedented investigative power to the EEOC.

In EEOC v. Union Pacific, the panel concluded that nothing in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act precludes the EEOC from resuming a charge investigation even after the agency has issued the charging parties a right-to-sue notice and their subsequent lawsuit has been dismissed on the merits by a federal trial court.

Our brief supports the company’s request to the full Seventh Circuit to review and reverse the panel’s ruling. Among other things, we argue that the panel’s decision is contrary to Title VII’s statutory language, that it is inconsistent with Seventh Circuit precedent, and that it will encourage abusive enforcement tactics.

A copy of our brief to the full Seventh Circuit is available here.

Members of the Center for Workplace Compliance (CWC) can read more here.