File this under checks and balances as well as civil rights.
The NYT points out that Senators Harkin and Grassley have introduced the Protecting Older Workers Against Discrimination Act which internded to overrule Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc. This was a 2008 Supreme Court case which ruled against a man's claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) that he had been demoted due to his age. The Supreme Court ruled that those claiming age discrimination must prove by a "preponderance of the evidence" that age was the principle factor leading to the demotion.
The Senators intend to overrule that standard. They state the following about the bill:
• The Act reverses the Gross decision and restores the law to what it was for decades before the Court rewrote the rule. The Act makes clear that when a victim shows discrimination was a “motivating factor” behind a decision, the burden is properly on the employer to show it complied with the law.
• The Act is modeled on the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which passed the Senate on a bipartisan basis 93-5. Among other things, the Civil Rights Act of 1991 codified the “motivating factor” framework for race, sex, national origin and religion discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.• The Act makes clear that this “motivating factor” framework applies to all anti-discrimination and anti-retaliation laws involving race, sex, national origin, religion, age and disability – treating all workers, and all forms of discrimination, equally.
While we've spent time looking at last week's attempt to use the Supreme Court to overturn a law passed by Congress, its worth noting that the reverse can happen as well. Congress can modify legislation to negate the consequences of a Supreme Court decision.
