Supreme Court: Title VII deadline clock resets with each new biased decision

In a unanimous opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court on May 24 ruled that the lawsuit clock resets each time an employer uses apparently biased job-qualification tests to make hiring decisions. The court said the timing of Title VII lawsuits doesn’t depend on when the test was administered, but on when the employer uses the test results, even if that’s years later.

The opinion could open the litigation floodgates, according to business groups that argued against the case brought by 6,000 black applicants who sought jobs as firefighters for the city of Chicago.

The case is Lewis v. Chicago.

A matter of timing

The central question in the case, which stretches back 15 years, was about timing. In July 1995, the Chicago Fire Department administered an employment test that it now acknowledges was biased against black applicants. It divided the candidates into three groups: “well qualified” (those who scored 89 and above), “qualified” (6...(register to read more)