The U.S. Supreme Court overturned a decision by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals covering New York, Connecticut and Vermont, in its ruling today that the 2nd Circuit and several other lower courts have been incorrectly applying too harsh a standard to the filing of discrimination complaints under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The errant courts had been requiring job discrimination plaintiffs to meet a burden of proof the Supreme Court intended to apply only once a case had made its way to court, to an initial stage of the process at which this burden is almost impossible to meet?effectively blocking workers from ever bringing their cases to trial. The opinion, written by Justice Thomas and argued for by Solicitor General Theodore Olson of the Bush Administration, firmly reestablishes the ?notice pleading? standard?which requires only that a worker make a clear claim of discrimination in order to force an employer to turn over evidence that could prove the worker?s claim.
See LINDA GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, February 26, 2002