A Material Question: Does Title VII Apply to Minor Employment Actions?

Robert A. Kearney

As the Supreme Court recently stated, few federal laws can rank with Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That makes it tempting to reserve the law for cases that are equally significant: a termination, for example, and not a shift change. Indeed, courts have been saving Title VII in this way for decades, principally by reading words into the statute that are not there and requiring a plaintiff to point to a “material, adverse employment action.” Creating a shadow statute is not legitimate, and it is also unnecessary because of four words already in the law: “compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges” of employment. Those are the only words that can be used to rule certain cases out. And if that means a minor case is ruled in? The beauty of a major law like Title VII is that there are no minor cases.