Ledbetter Act Passes

One of Congress' and Obama's first acts as we watch Bush retreat away is the passage of the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
A little background: When Lilly was about to retire from Goodyear, she learned that during the duration of her career, she like most women, was making substantially less then her mail colleagues. She sued, and like so many things in the law, the case became obsessed with procedure over substance. No one claimed that she didn't make less. No one claimed that the reason she was paid less was because of gender discrimination. The fight centered around when she filed the case. In the law, there's something called the Statute of Limitations. The statute of limitations is a concept that basically argues that there should be some finality in life. If you hit someone in a bar in 1999, in 2020, they shouldn't be able to sue you for assault. It's a simple doctrine. For things that are obvious, like an assault, you even have two years to sue. But sometimes you don't always know that you've been injured, which is what the discovery doctrine adjust for, it's a doctrine that exists that says the Statute of Limitations is tolled (legal word meaning put on pause) until you discovery the injury.

Goodyear argued that the Statute of Limitations had expired because the Lilly started making less money from the moment she was hired and far more then the 180 days provided in the Fair Pay Act had passed. The lawyers for Lilly argued that every new paycheck was a new act of discrimination and therefor able to be sued on. The Conservative majority of our Supreme Court that doesn't believe in logic or the rule of law, sided with Goodyear (oh they apparently don't have common sense either, since the only place I've worked where you were allowed to be open about how much you were paid was the government - so how was she supposed to know anyway).

Congress used it's legislative power and amended the act to make it clear that the right to sue restarted at every single paycheck. Of course, conservatives are calling this a windfall for attorneys. And of course, like always, the media lets it slide. Seriously folks, if you don't discriminate you won't get sued. The only windfall that existed was the Supreme Court's original ruling. A ruling that says that you have to know and complain within your first six months of employment pretty much guarantees no one will ever file a claim. Oh well, it's not like I'll ever understand how helping someone protect their rights is such a bad thing. But then the way the conservatives have been able to co-opt the national dialog is why our economic recovery package includes tax cuts. Only people attempting to cripple our government would believe that when you have an enormous debt and almost a decade's worth of negligence on maintaining our society's infrastructure should you provide tax cuts.