Justices Will Examine EEOC Subpoena Review Standard

By Patrick Dorrian, Bloomberg BNA

The level of deference federal appeals courts must give to district court decisions on whether to enforce EEOC investigative subpoenas will be examined by the U.S. Supreme Court.

The justices announced today that they will consider if the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit used the correct standard when it chose to review from scratch a lower court’s order that partly refused to enforce a subpoena the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission had issued during its investigation of a female employee’s sex discrimination charge.

The appeals court decided the agency is entitled to access to personal or “pedigree” information about other employees who ...