Even Kagan’s Witness Admits Liberals Unfairly Criticized The Ledbetter Decision

John Park / July 06, 2010

In last week’s hearings to determine whether former Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan should be a justice of the U.S. Supreme Court, a number of liberal Senators criticized the Supreme Court’s 2007 decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. as the work of “conservative activists.” In Ledbetter, the Court reaffirmed that the 180-day time period – a period that Congress itself established – for bringing a charge of discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is triggered when the alleged act of unlawful discrimination takes place.

This common-sense decision merely applied the statute as written. It disposed of the arguments by Lilly Ledbetter’s attorneys that the Court should “interpret” the law to trigger the 180-day period any time an employee experiences a “continuing effect” of an alleged discriminatory act, even if that discriminatory act happened years or decades in the past. (more…)