Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc.
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. | |
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Holding | |
The protection against discrimination on the basis of sex under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 is applicable to sexual harassment between members of the same sex. | |
Court membership | |
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Case opinions | |
Majority | Scalia, joined by unanimous |
Concurrence | Thomas |
Laws applied | |
Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 |
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, 523 U.S. 75 (1998), is a
Background
In late October 1991, Joseph Oncale was working for Sundowner Offshore Services on a
Oncale filed a complaint against Sundowner in the
Decision
Justice Scalia, writing for the unanimous court (with Justice Thomas concurring), reversed the decision of the district court and remanded the case for further proceedings in accordance with the instruction that a male can be discriminated against by members of the same sex under Title VII.
Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services set the precedent for analyzing same-sex harassment and sexual harassment without motivation of "sexual desire" by stating that any discrimination based on sex is actionable if it places the victim in an objectively-disadvantageous working condition, regardless of the gender of the victim or the harasser.
The case was subsequently remanded by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit to the trial court.[3] The case was then settled out of court.[4]
Impact and implementation
The application of the Oncale case has caused some difficulty in the lower federal courts, which have struggled with how to determine whether any particular case of same-sex harassment is "because of sex." In particular, courts have struggled with how to deal with harassment that appears to be based on actual or perceived sexual orientation because employment discrimination based on sexual orientation was not explicitly forbidden by federal law.
In July 2015, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission determined that employment discrimination based on sexual orientation was illegal under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and used the Oncale decision as a basis.[5]
Because it set a precedent regarding harassment "because of sex," Oncale v. Sundowner has been lauded as a landmark gay rights case, even though all those involved were heterosexual.[6][7] In the Court's opinion in Oncale, the inclusion of sexual discrimination between same sex individuals as a protected class under Title VII set an important precedent of expanding the interpretation of protected classes under ยง 2000e-2(a)(1).[8][9] This precedent was later reflected upon in Bostock v. Clayton County along with two other important cases, all of which considered the word "sex" and its definition in regards to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.[10]
See also
- Hostile work environment
- English v. Sanderson Blinds Ltd
- Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson
- Bostock v. Clayton County
- Hostile Advances: The Kerry Ellison Storymovie about Ellison v. Brady which set the "reasonable woman" precedent in sexual harassment law.
- Jenson v. Eveleth Taconite Co.
- List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 523
- List of LGBT-related cases in the United States Supreme Court
References
- (1998).
- 5th Cir.1996).
- ^ Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, 140 F.3d 595 (5th Cir. 1998).
- Seattle Times(October 25, 1998).
- ISSN 1091-2339. Retrieved July 17, 2015.
- ^ "Oncale v. Sundowner: Same-sex Harassment, and Sexual Harassment of Men". Sexual Harassment Support. Archived from the original on January 19, 2007. Retrieved October 9, 2006.
- ^ Lussier, Deb (July 1, 1998). "Boston College Law Review Volume 39 Issue 4 Number 4 Article 3: Oncale vs Sundowner Offshore Services Inc. and the Future of Title VII Sexual Harassment Jurisprudence (pages: 937-963)". Boston College Law Review. 39 (4): 962. Archived from the original on May 31, 2020. Retrieved May 31, 2020.
- ^ Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc. (n.d.). Oyez. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1997/96-568
- ^ "Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 | U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission". www.eeoc.gov. Retrieved March 13, 2021.
- ^ Eskridge Jr., William N. (November 2017). "Title VII's Statutory History and the Sex Discrimination Argument for LGBT Workplace Protections". Yale Law Journal. 127 (2): 322.
External links
- Text of Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, 523 U.S. 75 (1998) is available from: Cornell Findlaw Justia Library of Congress Oyez (oral argument audio)
- Database of important sexual harassment cases and litigation