Thompson v. North American Stainless

Thompson v. N. Am. Stainless
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided January 24, 2011
Full case name	Thompson v. North American Stainless
Citations	562 U.S. 170 (more)
Holding
Title VII protects a worker from retaliation if that worker's fiancé files a workplace grievance.
Court membership
Chief Justice John Roberts Associate Justices Antonin Scalia · Anthony Kennedy Clarence Thomas · Ruth Bader Ginsburg Stephen Breyer · Samuel Alito Sonia Sotomayor · Elena Kagan
Case opinions
Majority	Scalia, joined by unanimous
Concurrence	Ginsburg, joined by Breyer
Kagan took no part in the consideration or decision of the case.
Laws applied
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act

Thompson v. N. Am. Stainless, 562 U.S. 170 (2011), was a United States Supreme Court case in which the court held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects a worker from retaliation if that worker's fiancé files a workplace grievance.

Background

After Thompson's fiancée, Miriam Regalado, filed a sex-discrimination charge with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) against their employer, North American Stainless (NAS), NAS fired Thompson. He filed his own charge and a subsequent suit under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, claiming that NAS fired him to retaliate against Regalado for filing her charge. The federal District Court granted NAS summary judgment on the ground that third-party retaliation claims were not permitted by Title VII, which prohibits discrimination against an employee "because he has made a [Title VII] charge," and which permits, among other things, a "person claiming to be aggrieved... by [an] alleged employment practice" to file a civil action. The en banc Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed, reasoning that Thompson was not entitled to sue NAS for retaliation because he had not engaged in any activity protected by the statute.

Opinion of the court

The Supreme Court issued an opinion on January 24, 2011. The Supreme Court reversed. In an opinion by Justice Scalia, the court said that Title VII's antiretaliation provision must be construed to cover a broad range of employer conduct. A reasonable worker obviously might be dissuaded from engaging in protected activity if she knew that her fiancé would be fired.

External links

• Text of Thompson v. N. Am. Stainless, 562 U.S. 170 (2011) is available from: Justia

This article incorporates written opinion of a United States federal court. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the text is in the public domain.