Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/12pdf/11-556_11o2.pdf
Page Number: 44.0

10 

VANCE v. BALL STATE UNIV. 

GINSBURG, J., dissenting 

demote,  transfer,  or  discipline  employees.    In  her  third 
season working at the yard, Rhodes was verbally assaulted 
with  sex-based  invectives  and  a  pornographic  image  was 
taped  to  her  locker.  Poladian  forced  her  to  wash  her 
truck  in  sub-zero  temperatures,  assigned  her  undesirable 
yard  work  instead  of  road  crew  work,  and  prohibited 
another  employee  from  fixing  the  malfunctioning  heating 
system  in  her  truck.  Conceding  that  Rhodes  had  been
subjected  to  a  sex-based  hostile  work  environment,  the
Department  of  Transportation  argued  successfully  in  the 
District  Court  and  Court  of  Appeals  that  Poladian  and 
Mara  were  not  Rhodes’s  supervisors  because  they  lacked
authority  to  take  tangible  employment  actions  against 
her.  See Rhodes v. Illinois Dept. of Transp., 359 F. 3d 498, 
501–503, 506–507 (CA7 2004). 

Clara  Whitten:  Clara  Whitten  worked  at  a  discount 
retail store in Belton, South Carolina.  On Whitten’s first 
day  of  work,  the  manager,  Matt  Green,  told  her  to  “give
[him]  what  [he]  want[ed]”  in  order  to  obtain  approval  for
long  weekends  off  from  work.  Later,  fearing  what  might 
transpire, Whitten ignored Green’s order to join him in an
isolated storeroom.  Angered, Green instructed Whitten to
stay late and clean the store.  He demanded that she work 
over the weekend despite her scheduled day off.  Dismiss-
ing  her  as  “dumb  and  stupid,”  Green  threatened  to  make
her  life  a  “living  hell.”  Green  lacked  authority  to  fire,
promote,  demote,  or  otherwise  make  decisions  affecting 
Whitten’s pocketbook.  But he directed her activities, gave 
her  tasks  to  accomplish,  burdened  her  with  undesirable 
work  assignments,  and  controlled  her  schedule.    He  was 
usually  the  highest  ranking  employee  in  the  store,  and 
both  Whitten  and  Green  considered  him  the  supervisor.
See  Whitten,  601  F. 3d,  at  236,  244–247  (internal  quota-
tion marks omitted). 

Monika Starke: CRST Van Expedited, Inc., an interstate
transit  company,  ran  a  training  program  for  newly  hired