NFIB Files Amicus Brief in Fort Bend County, Texas v. Davis, Urging Supreme Court to Protect Small Businesses’ Ability to Resolve Title VII Discrimination Claims Outside of Court

by: National Federation of Independent Business

Fort Bend, TX - March 4, 2019 - (The Ponder News) -- NFIB filed an amicus brief in the case of Fort Bend County, Texas, v. Davis today, arguing that the United States Supreme Court should preserve the right of employers and employees to work through discrimination claims first outside of costly litigation.

“Small business owners work hard to ensure that they are compliant with employment laws,” said Karen Harned, Executive Director of the NFIB Small Business Legal Center. “Because of their good faith efforts, businesses would much prefer to resolve problems without costly court battles. Moreover, Congress also expressed preference for reconciliation of Title VII discrimination claims through the administrative process. Allowing employees to go directly to court would undermine the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission’s mandate to resolve these costly claims quickly and outside of the court system.”

Fort Bend County, Texas, v. Davis concerns whether an employee’s failure to exhaust Title VII administrative remedies by first raising a discrimination claim with the EEOC is a jurisdictional prerequisite to filing a lawsuit in a federal court. In our brief, NFIB argues that, “One of the bedrock policies underlying Title VII is that the favored means of resolving employment discrimination issues is not through litigation, but through voluntary compliance and cooperation.”

The NFIB Small Business Legal Center protects the rights of small business owners in the nation’s courts. NFIB is currently active in more than 40 cases in federal and state courts across the country and in the U.S. Supreme Court.