Opinion ID: 2509105
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Federal courts' interpretations of the severe and pervasive requirement

Text: In Clark County School Dist. v. Breeden, 532 U.S. 268, 270, 121 S.Ct. 1508, 149 L.Ed.2d 509 (2001), the United States Supreme Court stated that sexual harassment is actionable under Title VII only if it is so severe or pervasive as to alter the conditions of [the victim's] employment and create an abusive working environment. (Citations and internal quotation signals omitted.) (Alteration in original.) See also Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Servs., 523 U.S. 75, 78, 118 S.Ct. 998, 140 L.Ed.2d 201 (1998) (`When the workplace is permeated with discriminatory intimidation, ridicule, and insult that is sufficiently severe or pervasive to alter the conditions of the victim's employment and create an abusive working environment, Title VII is violated.' (Quoting Harris v. Forklift Sys., 510 U.S. 17, 21, 114 S.Ct. 367, 126 L.Ed.2d 295 (1993).)). Using this standard, federal courts look at the severity of the conduct in conjunction with its effect on the victim's employment. For example, in Brooks v. City of San Mateo, 229 F.3d 917 (9th Cir.2000), [10] a female employee was sexually assaulted by a male co-worker who forced his hand underneath the female employee's sweater and bra and fondled her bare breast. Id. at 921. The next day, the employer put the harassing co-worker on administrative leave. Id. at 921-22. The harassing co-worker resigned after the employer began proceedings to terminate his employment. Id. at 922. The Ninth Circuit concluded that this single incident of sexual assault did not constitute actionable sexual harassment: Because only the employer can change the terms and conditions of employment, an isolated incident of harassment by a co-worker will rarely (if ever) give rise to a reasonable fear that sexual harassment has become a permanent feature of the employment relationship. By hypothesis, the employer will have had no advance notice and therefore cannot have sanctioned the harassment beforehand. And, if the employer takes appropriate corrective action, it will not have ratified the conduct. In such circumstances, it becomes difficult to say that a reasonable victim would feel that the terms and conditions of her employment have changed as a result of the misconduct. Which is why [the co-worker's] conduct, while relevant, is not the primary focus of our inquiry. No one could reasonably dispute that what [the co-worker] did was egregious; he was, after all, immediately removed from his job and prosecuted. He spent time in jail. But it is the [employer], and not [the co-worker], who is the defendant here. To hold her employer liable for sexual harassment under Title VII, [the victim] must show that she reasonably feared she would be subject to such misconduct in the future because the city encouraged or tolerated [the co-worker's] harassment. Id. at 924 (footnote omitted). Thus, the federal courts look at the effect the harassing conduct has on the victim's employment, rather than conducting separate inquiries into the severity of the conduct and the effect of that conduct on the employee's workplace. See id. at 926 (Utilizing the Harris factors of frequency, severity and intensity of interference with working conditions, we cannot say that a reasonable woman in [the employee's] position would consider the terms and conditions of her employment altered by [the co-worker's] actions. [The employee] was harassed on a single occasion for a matter of minutes in a way that did not impair her ability to do her job in the long-term[.] (Footnote omitted.)). See also Oncale, 523 U.S. at 81, 118 S.Ct. 998 (The prohibition of harassment on the basis of sex ... forbids only behavior so objectively offensive as to alter the `conditions' of the victim's employment. `Conduct that is not severe or pervasive enough to create an objectively hostile or abusive work environmentan environment that a reasonable person would find hostile or abusiveis beyond Title VII's purview.' (Quoting Harris, 510 U.S. at 21, 114 S.Ct. 367.)); Meriwether v. Caraustar Packaging Co., 326 F.3d 990, 993 (8th Cir.2003) (holding that a single incident in which a co-worker squeezed an employee's buttocks was not sufficiently severe or pervasive so as to alter the conditions of [the victim's] employment and create an abusive working environment).