The first major piece of legislation of the Obama Administration has been signed and it overturns a decision made by the Supreme Court last year. This an interesting example of a check and balance not written in the Constitution, but facilitated by its design.
In the court case, Ledbetter's lawsuit claiming gender discrimination in pay was denied because 5 out of 9 justices argued that she filed the lawsuit later than the time allowed in Equal Pay Act. They contended that the 180 day limit ended when she received her first pay check. That was when she should have noticed the pay disparity and repoprted it. The dissenters held that the deadline was refreshed everytime she received a pay check. Civil rights violations are not a one time phenomenon, but recur.
The opinion of the justices is moot now however because the law now explicitly states that the statue of limitations is renewed every time a a unique discriminatory act--like the act of giving someone a pay check--occurs.
For my 2301 classes: here's a webpage that contains political dialogue about the issue. In a superficial sense, this pits the liberal civil rights, women's equity crowd against the conservative leave business alone crowd.
For my 2302 classes: here's the path the bill took on its way to becoming law.
