Opinion ID: 71953
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: some closing thoughts

Text: 54 We recognize that our holding allows a man who admitted to engaging in sexual harassment to take his termination case to a jury. We are emphatically not holding, however, that an alleged sexual harasser cannot be fired. In fact, it may be prudent for an employer to fire or otherwise discipline a sexual harasser in order to avoid Title VII liability in the future. Merritt himself concedes that Dillard could have fired him any time before his deposition. We go further than that. Dillard could have fired Merritt after he gave his deposition testimony, as well, so long as it did not fire him because he testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in a Title VII investigation or proceeding. 55 We do not think that the anti-retaliation provision puts an employer in a no-win situation, where it will be held liable whether or not it disciplines a sexual harasser--liable now if it does, or liable in the future if it does not. Employers can discipline their employees for any reason not prohibited by Title VII and its anti-retaliation provision, and they certainly can discipline employees for sexually harassing behavior. We believe that in virtually every case where an employer disciplines an employee guilty of sexually harassing behavior and the employee files a lawsuit claiming retaliation because of his participation in a Title VII investigation or proceeding, the employer will be entitled to summary judgment. We predict that summary judgment will be the rule, because in the typical case the disciplined employee will have neither direct evidence of retaliatory motive nor evidence that the employer's stated reason--the employee's sexually harassing behavior--is pretextual. The present case is the exception, the rare case where there is direct evidence of retaliatory motive. 56 Dillard's the sky is falling argument prompts us to make another observation. Even in the rare case in which a sexual harasser who has gotten his just desserts from the employer can survive summary judgment and then persuade the factfinder that he was disciplined because of his participation in the victim's Title VII proceeding, it may be a pyrrhic victory for him. Under 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g)(2)(B), if the employer can convince the factfinder that it would have made the same decision in the absence of a retaliatory motive, the employee will not receive damages, reinstatement, and the like. For example, even if Clark made the statement Merritt attributes to him, Merritt is still not entitled to damages or reinstatement if he would have been fired anyway because of his sexually harassing behavior.