Sexual Harassment Supreme Court Opinions Defining Sexual Harassment in the United States
Sexual Harassment Supreme Court Opinions Defining Sexual Harassment
Introduction to Sexual Harassment Supreme Court Opinions Defining Sexual Harassment
In 1986 in the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson, the Supreme Court first recognized as unlawful both types of sexual harassment defined by the EEOC guidelines-that is, harassment involving a coercive tradeoff and harassment that creates a hostile or intimidating environment. The Court unanimously concluded that both types of sexual harassment were actionable under Title VII-meaning victims of such harassment could sue their employer for monetary damages.
In the Meritor case, a female employee alleged that the bank’s male vice president invited her to dinner and, afterward, suggested going to a motel to have sex. She testified that although she initially refused to go to the motel, she later agreed for fear of losing her job. The employee also alleged that the vice president repeatedly made sexual demands of her during business and nonbusiness hours, and that during the next few years they had sex approximately 40 to 50 times. The trial court had concluded that because the sexual relationship between the employee and her supervisor was voluntary, the sexual conduct was unrelated to the employee’s continued employment, and therefore the employee was not a victim of sexual harassment. The Supreme Court ruled that the employee might be able to show that the supervisor’s actions had illegally affected her employment conditions by creating a hostile and intimidating environment.
Whereas the trial court in the Meritor case focused on whether the employee suffered any tangible economic loss, the Supreme Court relied on the language of the EEOC guidelines regarding a hostile work environment. The Court compared sexual harassment to racial discrimination, stating: “Sexual harassment which creates a hostile or offensive environment for members of one sex is every bit the arbitrary barrier to sexual equality at the workplace that racial harassment is to racial equality.” The Court cautioned that to constitute harassment, the behaviors must be sufficiently severe and pervasive so as to “alter the conditions of [the victim’s] employment and create an abusive working environment.” It indicated that employees may sue for sexual harassment even if they did not resist the harassment or suffered no loss of tangible benefits. According to the Court, to determine whether unlawful sexual harassment has occurred, trial courts should assess whether the victim indicated that the sexual advances were unwelcome, and not whether the victim’s participation was voluntary.
In 1993 the Supreme Court again addressed a case in which an employee claimed that her supervisor had sexually harassed her by creating a hostile working environment. In Harris v. Forklift Systems, a female employee alleged that her male supervisor, in front of fellow employees, insulted her because she was a woman, made unwelcome sexual innuendoes, and asked her and other female employees to remove coins from his front pants pocket. The trial court concluded that although some of the supervisor’s comments offended the employee and would offend a reasonable woman, they were not severe enough to affect the employee’s psychological well-being, to interfere with her work performance, or to create an abusive or intimidating work environment. The trial court therefore dismissed the case.
The Supreme Court reversed the trial court’s decision and held that conduct need not “seriously affect an employee’s psychological well-being or cause the employee to suffer injury” in order to be actionable under Title VII. So long as a reasonable person could perceive the environment to be hostile or abusive, and the victim actually perceives it as such, it need not also be psychologically damaging. The Court acknowledged that the law did not provide a precise test for determining whether behavior constituted sexual harassment. The Court indicated that judges or juries should determine whether an environment is hostile by looking at all of the circumstances, based on a number of factors. These factors include the frequency and severity of the harassing conduct; whether it is physically threatening or humiliating; and whether it interferes with an employee’s work performance. According to the Court, the proper standard for determining sexual harassment is a middle path between conduct that is merely offensive and conduct that causes a tangible psychological injury.
In 1998 the Supreme Court, in Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, ruled that unlawful sexual harassment could occur between members of the same sex. The Court did not examine the specifics of the employee’s complaint on appeal because the trial court had ruled summarily (without any trial to examine the facts) that the employee had no basis for a lawsuit under Title VII. Instead, the Court simply determined that the trial court erred in automatically dismissing the case. The Court’s decision also reiterated the standard expressed in the Harris case, which requires courts to assess alleged harassment from the perspective of a reasonable person considering all the circumstances.” (1)
Resources
Notes and References
- Information about Sexual Harassment Supreme Court Opinions Defining Sexual Harassment in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia