CBOCS WEST, INC., Petitioner v. HEDRICK G. HUMPHRIES , 553 U.S. 442

Summary

The Court, in examining the interpretive history of § 1981, found that (1) 42 U.S.C.S. § 1982 encompassed a retaliation action; (2) the Court had long interpreted 42 U.S.C.S. §§ 1981 and 1982 alike; (3) caselaw, without mention of retaliation, narrowed § 1981 by excluding from its scope conduct, namely post-contract-formation conduct, where retaliation would most likely be found; but in 1991, Congress enacted legislation that superseded that caselaw and explicitly defined the scope of § 1981 to include post-contract-formation conduct; and (4) since 1991, the lower courts had uniformly interpreted § 1981 as encompassing retaliation actions. In the Court's view, the employer's several arguments, taken separately or together, could not justify a departure from the well-embedded interpretation of § 1981. The Court rejected the employer's arguments that Congress did not intend its 1991 reenactment of § 1981 to cover retaliation and that § 1981, if applied to employment-related retaliation ...