Supreme Court boots Tyson racial case back to appeals court
By GINA HOLLAND/Lincoln Journal Star
February 22, 2006
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court stepped into a dispute Tuesday over whether white managers can be sued for calling black employees "boys."
The court unanimously overturned an appeals court decision that said use of the term "boy" alone was not evidence of workplace discrimination and ordered the appeals court to reconsider the matter.
The decision, one of the first actions in which new Justice Samuel Alito participated, is a loss for Tyson Foods Inc. which was sued by two longtime black employees who claimed they were passed over for promotions by a white manager who called them "boys."
A jury awarded Anthony Ash and John Hithon $1.75 million apiece in damages, but a judge threw out the decision.
Ash had 15 years of experience with Tyson Foods and Hithon 13 years. A white man who got a management job they sought at an Alabama plant had less than two years experience.
Eric Schnapper, a law professor at the University of Washington who is representing the men, told justices that the term "boy" is offensive and is considered a slur by other courts.
"This form of verbal abuse has its origins in the slave era," he wrote in the appeal.
In sending the case back to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, the court released an unsigned opinion. Alito apparently joined his colleagues in the opinion, in which the court said: "Although it is true the disputed word will not always be evidence of racial animus, it does not follow that the term, standing alone, is always benign."
The lawyers for Tyson Foods said that evidence showed the manager "was rude and curt to all employees — white and black — but had never used racial epithets."
Ash and Hithon were among six people who sued under a 1964 civil rights law
The manager, Tom Hatley, had been brought in to fix problems at the Gadsden, Ala., plant which was losing as much as $250,000 a week, the company said.
Two white shift managers quit after he withheld their pay raises, and Ash and Hithon applied for the jobs.
The case is Ash v. Tyson Foods, 05-379.
journalstar.com
By GINA HOLLAND/Lincoln Journal Star
February 22, 2006
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court stepped into a dispute Tuesday over whether white managers can be sued for calling black employees "boys."
The court unanimously overturned an appeals court decision that said use of the term "boy" alone was not evidence of workplace discrimination and ordered the appeals court to reconsider the matter.
The decision, one of the first actions in which new Justice Samuel Alito participated, is a loss for Tyson Foods Inc. which was sued by two longtime black employees who claimed they were passed over for promotions by a white manager who called them "boys."
A jury awarded Anthony Ash and John Hithon $1.75 million apiece in damages, but a judge threw out the decision.
Ash had 15 years of experience with Tyson Foods and Hithon 13 years. A white man who got a management job they sought at an Alabama plant had less than two years experience.
Eric Schnapper, a law professor at the University of Washington who is representing the men, told justices that the term "boy" is offensive and is considered a slur by other courts.
"This form of verbal abuse has its origins in the slave era," he wrote in the appeal.
In sending the case back to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, the court released an unsigned opinion. Alito apparently joined his colleagues in the opinion, in which the court said: "Although it is true the disputed word will not always be evidence of racial animus, it does not follow that the term, standing alone, is always benign."
The lawyers for Tyson Foods said that evidence showed the manager "was rude and curt to all employees — white and black — but had never used racial epithets."
Ash and Hithon were among six people who sued under a 1964 civil rights law
The manager, Tom Hatley, had been brought in to fix problems at the Gadsden, Ala., plant which was losing as much as $250,000 a week, the company said.
Two white shift managers quit after he withheld their pay raises, and Ash and Hithon applied for the jobs.
The case is Ash v. Tyson Foods, 05-379.
journalstar.com