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Text: This case arises out of a Title VII suit filed by a woman named Damiana Ochoa. Ochoa worked for eight years as a “cigarette selector” for petitioner McLane Co., a supplychain services company. According to McLane, the job is a demanding one: Cigarette selectors work in distribution centers, where they are required to lift, pack, and move large bins containing products. McLane requires employees taking physically demanding jobs—both new employees and employees returning from medical leave—to take a physical evaluation. According to McLane, the evaluation “tests . . . range of motion, resistance, and speed” and “is designed, administered, and validated by a third party.” Brief for Petitioner 6. In 2007, Ochoa took three months of maternity leave. When she attempted to return to work, McLane asked her to take the evaluation. Ochoa attempted to pass the evaluation three times, but failed. McLane fired her.

Ochoa filed a charge of discrimination, alleging (among other things) that she had been fired on the basis of her gender. The EEOC began an investigation, and—at its request—McLane provided it with basic information about the evaluation, as well as a list of anonymous employees that McLane had asked to take the evaluation. McLane’s list included each employee’s gender, role at the company, and evaluation score, as well as the reason each employee had been asked to take the evaluation. But the company refused to provide what the parties call “pedigree information”: the names, Social Security numbers, last known addresses, and telephone numbers of the employees who had been asked to take the evaluation. Upon learning that McLane used the evaluation nationwide, the EEOC expanded the scope of its investigation, both geographically (to focus on McLane’s nationwide operations) and substantively (to investigate whether McLane had discriminated against its employees on the basis of age). It issued subpoenas requesting pedigree information as it related to its new investigation. But McLane refused to provide the pedigree information, and so the EEOC filed two actions in Federal District Court—one arising out of Ochoa’s charge and one arising out of a separate agediscrimination charge the EEOC itself had filed—seeking enforcement of its subpoenas.

The enforcement actions were assigned to the same District Judge, who, after a hearing, declined to enforce the subpoenas to the extent that they sought the pedigree information. See EEOC v. McLane Co., 2012 WL 1132758, *5 (D Ariz., Apr. 4, 2012) (age discrimination charge); Civ. No. 12–2469 (D Ariz., Nov. 19, 2012), App. to Pet. for Cert. 28–30 (Title VII charge).2 In the District Court’s view, the pedigree information was not “relevant” to the charges because “ ‘an individual’s name, or even an interview he or she could provide if contacted, simply could not shed light on whether the [evaluation] represents a tool of . . . discrimination.’ ” App. to Pet. for Cert. 29 (quoting 2012 WL 1132758, at *5; some internal quotation marks omitted).

The Ninth Circuit reversed. See 804 F.3d 1051 (2015). Consistent with Circuit precedent, the panel reviewed the District Court’s decision to quash the subpoena de novo, and concluded that the District Court had erred in finding the pedigree information irrelevant. Id., at 1057. But the panel questioned in a footnote why de novo review applied, observing that its sister Circuits “appear[ed] to review issues related to enforcement of administrative subpoenas for abuse of discretion.” Id., at 1056, n. 3; see infra, at 7 (reviewing Court of Appeals authority).

This Court granted certiorari to resolve the disagreement between the Courts of Appeals over the appropriate standard of review for the decision whether to enforce an EEOC subpoena. 579 U. S. ___ (2016). Because the United States agrees with McLane that such a decision should be reviewed for abuse of discretion, Stephen B. Kinnard was appointed as amicus curiae to defend the judgment below. 580 U. S. ___ (2016). He has ably discharged his duties.