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Volume 4 Number 3
LEGISLATION TO BE INTRODUCED TO ADDRESS SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY LAW
As was reported in the June 1989 C1VIL RIGHTS MONITOR, in the last month of its 1988-89 term the Supreme Court issued several decisions related to employment discrimination that add up to a major shift from equal employment opportunity law established over the past twenty-five years to protect the rights of minorities and women. Civil rights advocates in the Congress and civil rights leaders have indicated they will seek passage of legislation to overturn the Court's decisions. Rep. Augustus Hawkins (D-CA), Chair of the House Education and Labor Committee, said:
"Women and minorities are losing ground with each Supreme Court ruling. Without warrant or necessity, the court has turned back the clock. In the absence of White House leadership, it is clear that Congressional action is the best response to these decisions."
Civil rights advocates expressed the view that Congress would act to overturn the decisions.
During the last eight years, six decisions of the Supreme Court on civil rights issues have been overturned by the Congress:
" In 1982 in extending the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Congress overturned the Mobile v. Bolden case which held that the Voting Rights Act required proof of intent to discriminate. The Voting Rights Amendments Act of 1982 established that election practices that have a negative impact on minority voters may also be prohibited by the Act regardless of intent.
" In 1986 the Handicapped Protection Act overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Robinson which had ruled that the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (P.L. 94-142) did not authorize payment of legal fees. The HPA provided for the payment of legal fees of parties who successfully sue under P.L. 94-142.
" In 1986 the Civil Rights Remedy Equalization Act overturned the Supreme Court's decision in Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon which held that the States' Eleventh Amendment immunity to suit in federal court had not been lifted by Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The CRRE Act established that under Section 504, Congress intended state agencies that violate the law to be held liable for damages in federal court.
" In 1986 the Air Carrier Access Act overturned the Court's decision in Department of Transportation v. Paralyzed Veterans of America which held that Section 504 was not applicable to commercial air carriers because they were not direct recipients of federal funds. The Act amended Section 404(a) of the Federal Aviation Act of 1958 to require the Secretary of Transportation within 120 days to issue regulations ensuring "nondiscriminatory treatment of qualified handicapped persons consistent with the safe transportation of all passengers."
In 1988 Congress overrode a presidential veto of the Civil Rights Restoration Act and over turned the 1984 Supreme Court decisions in Grove City College v. Bell and Consolidated Rail Corporation v. Darrone which held respectively that the Tide IX prohibitions against sex dis crimination and the Section 504 prohibitions against handicap discrimination did not cover all programs of an institution receiving federal assistance but only those to which the assistance was directed. The CRIZA restored the broad coverage of Title IX, and Section 504, as well as Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and the Age Discrimination Act, the four major civil rights laws that prohibit the federal funding of discrimination against women, persons with disabilities, minorities, and older Americans.
Comprehensive legislation to reverse the Supreme Court's decisions on equal employment opportunity law is expected to be introduced soon.
  
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