The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has once again overruled a company’s efforts to quash a broad subpoena issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that demands sensitive personally identifiable information on employees company-wide. The ruling comes after the Supreme Court ruled in April that the appeals court applied the wrong standard of review the first time around and sent the case back to the Ninth Circuit to apply the correct standard.
Despite the Supreme Court’s admonition to give deference to the trial court’s ruling, which denied enforcement of the EEOC’s subpoena, the Ninth Circuit in EEOC v. McLane Company, Inc., No. 13-15126 (9th Cir. May 24, 2017), again overruled the lower court, stating that it should have analyzed whether the requested information was relevant (i.e., might shed light on the underlying sex discrimination charge), not whether the information was actually needed to prove the underlying charge allegations.
The appeals court then determined that the EEOC’s expansive request for company-wide employee personally identifiable information was relevant to the underlying charge because it would allow the EEOC to contact other employees who may shed light on the charge.
The upshot is that the case now goes back to the trial court to compel the company to produce the information unless the court determines that the EEOC’s request is unduly burdensome.
A copy of the Ninth Circuit’s opinion in McLane is available here.
Members of the Equal Employment Advisory Council (EEAC) can read more here.