Supreme Court takes another look at Title IX

Bloomberg Law spoke with Anne Lofaso, a professor in the University of Cincinnati Donald P. Klekamp College of Law, for a story about the Supreme Court reviewing whether Title IX may allow workers to sue for job bias.

Lofaso teaches employment law, employment discrimination law and constitutional law. She is also a former attorney for the National Labor Review Board.

The justices on Monday granted the petitioners’ request to examine a US Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit decision that Title IX of the 1972 Educational Amendments Act only provides a private right of action for students to bring sex bias claims, reports Bloomberg Law.

The High Court’s review could settle disagreements among federal appeals courts about whether school employees can sue for sex discrimination under both Title IX and Title VII. The review could also clarify whether Title IX gives employees an implied right to sue for workplace discrimination, building on the Court’s 2005 decision in Jackson v. Birmingham Board of Education, which recognized retaliation claims under Title IX.

Lofaso told Bloomberg Law that most circuits initially thought that Jackson settled the question until a split later emerged.

Bloomberg Law reports that Justice Clarence Thomas will be an important figure to watch, as he wrote the dissent in that case, joined by three other justices. He argued in part that Congress didn’t use any express language in Title IX to support the majority’s ruling.

“Ten years ago, I would say this is a slam dunk—that there’s a private right of action,” Lofaso is quoted saying in a Bloomberg Law story. “The Supreme Court has really changed in the past decade.”

Read the full story in Bloomberg Law online.

Featured top image of the US Supreme Court building. Photo/iStock.