Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/11-556_11o2.pdf
Page Number: 36.0

2 

VANCE v. BALL STATE UNIV. 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

mally  empowered  to  take  tangible  employment  actions. 
The  limitation  the  Court  decrees  diminishes  the  force  of 
Faragher and Ellerth, ignores the conditions under which
members of the work force labor, and disserves the objec-
tive  of  Title  VII  to  prevent  discrimination  from  infecting
the Nation’s workplaces.  I would follow the EEOC’s Guid-
ance  and  hold  that  the  authority  to  direct  an  employee’s
daily  activities  establishes  supervisory  status  under  Title 
VII. 

I 

A 

Title VII makes it “an unlawful employment practice for 
an employer” to “discriminate against any individual with
respect to” the “terms, conditions, or privileges of employ-
ment, because of such individual’s race, color, religion, sex,
or national origin.”  42 U. S. C. §2000e–2(a).  The creation 
of  a  hostile  work  environment  through  harassment,  this 
Court has long recognized, is a form of proscribed discrim-
ination.  Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Services, Inc., 523 
U. S. 75, 78 (1998); Meritor Savings Bank, FSB v. Vinson, 
477 U. S. 57, 64–65 (1986).

What  qualifies  as  harassment?  Title  VII  imposes  no
“general  civility  code.”  Oncale,  523  U. S.,  at  81.    It  does 
not reach “the ordinary tribulations of the workplace,” for 
example,  “sporadic  use  of  abusive  language”  or  generally 
boorish conduct.  B. Lindemann & D. Kadue, Sexual Har-
assment  in  Employment  Law  175  (1992).    See  also  1  B. 
Lindemann  &  P.  Grossman,  Employment  Discrimination
Law  1335–1343  (4th  ed.  2007)  (hereinafter  Lindemann  & 
Grossman).  To  be  actionable,  charged  behavior  need  not 
drive the victim from her job, but it must be of such sever-
ity or pervasiveness as to pollute the working environment,
thereby  “alter[ing]  the  conditions  of  the  victim’s  employ-
ment.”  Harris v. Forklift Systems, Inc., 510 U. S. 17, 21– 
22 (1993).