EEOC may continue investigating the charge after the plaintiff files a Title VII lawsuit

The Second Circuit holds that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has authority to continue investigating discrimination claims even after the agency issues a right-to-sue letter and the complainant becomes a plaintiff in court. 

The case is EEOC v. AAM Holding Corp., issued on August 25. The EEOC was created when Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The agency investigates employment discrimination claims, and a key provision under Title VII is that you cannot bring a Title VII claim in court without first filing a charge of discrimination with the EEOC, which will investigate and try to mediate the dispute but will ultimately close out the file when the plaintiff decides that court is a better option than an overworked federal agency that may or may not conduct a thorough investigation.

Sometimes the EEOC decides the case is worth investigating even after the plaintiff abandons the agency process and dives into court. What happens now? This case explores what the EEOC can do after it issues the right-to-sue letter.

The case involves dancers at adult entertainment clubs who allege widespread sexual harassment and a hostile work environment. They filed an EEOC charge to that effect. The EEOC then began investigating by issuing subpoenas to the clubs seeking employee pedigree information. Over the employers' objections, a federal court ruled the subpoenas were proper and sought relevant information. During this battle, the women got their right-to-sue letter and filed suit in federal court. The employers then argued that the subpoenas were moot because the plaintiffs were proceeding on their own. The Court of Appeals (Cabranes, Lohier and Sullivan) disagrees.

The Second Circuit reviews Title VII and the provisions that created the EEOC, holding that the agency's authority to investigate a discrimination charge does not expire when the plaintiff files her own lawsuit. The Fifth Circuit interprets Title VII that way, but the Second Circuit disagrees, creating a circuit split that the Supreme Court will have to untangle some day. For now, the law in the Second Circuit is that the right-to-sue letter does not terminate the EEOC's authority to continue the investigation. The Court reasons it this way:

The EEOC’s broad public interest and role in combating employment discrimination supports our view that its authority to investigate a charge extends beyond the issuance of a right-to-sue letter. A central component of the EEOC’s role is to pursue the public’s interest in enforcing employment discrimination laws even where that interest is distinct from, and may exceed, the private interest of the aggrieved charging party. Congress reinforced the agency’s mandate “to secure more effective enforcement of Title VII” by arming it with the tools necessary to do so: investigation, conciliation, mediation, civil enforcement, and intervention in charging parties’ civil actions.