Opinion ID: 386015
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Availability of Backpay under the Revenue Sharing Act

Text: 11 A threshold question not addressed by the parties or the district court is whether backpay is available as a remedy in private actions under the Revenue Sharing Act. In their arguments the parties have relied principally on authorities interpreting Title VII. Unlike Title VII, however, see 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g), the Revenue Sharing Act does not explicitly provide for awards of backpay. Thus we must determine whether such an award is contemplated by the Act, and, if it is, whether Title VII standards govern. 6 We answer both questions in the affirmative. 12 The remedy section of the Revenue Sharing Act, which was added when the Act was amended in 1976, 7 provides as follows: 13 The court may grant as relief to the plaintiff (in a private suit under the Act) any temporary restraining order, preliminary or permanent injunction or other order, including the suspension, termination, or repayment of funds, or placing any further payments under this chapter in escrow pending the outcome of the litigation. 14 § 124(b), 31 U.S.C. § 1244(b). Backpay is a familiar equitable remedy that is recognized as essential in alleviating the effects of employment discrimination. See Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, supra. When Congress entrusts to an equity court the enforcement of prohibitions contained in a regulatory enactment, it must be taken to have acted cognizant of the historic power of equity to provide complete relief in light of the statutory purposes. Mitchell v. Robert DeMario Jewelry, Inc., 361 U.S. 288, 291-92, 80 S.Ct. 332, 334-36, 4 L.Ed.2d 322 (1960) (interpreting the Fair Labor Standards Act). Since the statute empowers courts to issue any ... injunction or other order (emphasis added) appropriate to remedy a violation of the Act, we view the language of § 124(b) itself as indicating an intention to encompass awards of backpay. 15 We do not read that portion of § 124(b) which permits the court to order the suspension, termination, ... repayment ... or placing in escrow of revenue sharing funds as indicating a Congressional intention to limit relief to remedies that affect an offending entity's entitlement to revenue sharing funds. To the contrary, the legislative history suggests that Congress sought to cast the remedial net as widely as possible. With respect to nearly identical language in § 122(g) of the Act concerning the Attorney General's power to enforce the antidiscrimination provisions, 8 both the Senate and Conference Reports accompanying the 1976 amendments describe the language as expand(ing) that authority, rather than limiting it to funds-oriented remedies. S.Rep. No. 94-1207, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 33, reprinted in (1976) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News, pp. 5151, 5183; H.Conf.Rep.No.94-1720, 94th Cong., 2d Sess. 36, reprinted in (1976) U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News, pp. 5188, 5204. The corresponding language of § 124(b) concerning private actions similarly evinces a congressional intent to permit the full array of traditional equitable remedies in addition to the other, more drastic remedies enumerated. Thus we conclude that backpay is one of the remedial tools provided by § 124(b). 9 16 Having concluded that backpay is a permissible remedy under the Revenue Sharing Act, we believe that standards employed under Title VII should apply in determining the propriety of such awards. Those standards are well-developed and have been used in connection with other federal antidiscrimination laws, see Rodriguez v. Taylor, 569 F.2d 1231 (3d Cir. 1977) (Age Discrimination in Employment Act), cert. denied, 436 U.S. 913, 98 S.Ct. 2254, 56 L.Ed.2d 414 (1978). There appears to be no reason why they should not also be applied here.