Court Opinion

ID: 9430764
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:30:31.452608+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:26.021522
License: Public Domain

*297Justice White,
with whom The Chief Justice and Justice Powell join, dissenting.
I disagree with the Court that Cal. Govt. Code Ann. § 12945(b)(2) (West 1980) is not pre-empted by the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (PDA), 92 Stat. 2076, codified at 42 U. S. C. § 2000e(k), and § 708 of Title VII. Section 703(a) of Title VII, 78 Stat. 255, 42 U. S. C. §2000e-2(a), forbids discrimination in the terms of employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The PDA gave added meaning to discrimination on the basis of sex:
“The terms ‘because of sex’ or ‘on the basis of sex’ [in § 703(a) of this Title] include, but are not limited to, because of or on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth or related medical conditions; and women affected by pregnancy, childbirth, or related medical conditions shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes, including receipt of benefits under fringe benefit programs, as other persons not so affected but similar in their ability or inability to work . . . .” §'2000e(k).
The second clause quoted above could not be clearer: it mandates that pregnant employees “shall be treated the same for all employment-related purposes” as nonpregnant employees similarly situated with respect to their ability or inability to work. This language leaves no room for preferential treatment of pregnant workers. The majority would avoid its plain meaning by misapplying our interpretation of the clause in Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. EEOC, 462 U. S. 669, 678, n. 14 (1983). Ante, at 285. The second clause addresses only female employees and was not directly implicated in Newport News because the pregnant persons at issue in that case were spouses of male employees. We therefore stated in Newport News that the second clause had only explanatory or illustrative significance. We did not indicate in any way, however, that the *298second clause does not mean exactly what it says in a situation where it is directly implicated.
Contrary to the mandate of the PDA, California law requires every employer to have a disability leave policy for pregnancy even if it has none for any other disability. An employer complies with California law if it has a leave policy for pregnancy but denies it for every other disability. On its face, § 12945(b)(2) is in square conflict with the PDA and is therefore pre-empted. Because the California law permits employers to single out pregnancy for preferential treatment and therefore to violate Title VII, it is not saved by §708 which limits pre-emption of state laws to those that require or permit an employer to commit an unfair employment practice.1
The majority nevertheless would save the California law on two grounds. First, it holds that the PDA does not require disability from pregnancy to be treated the same as other disabilities; instead, it forbids less favorable, but permits more favorable, benefits for pregnancy disability. The express command of the PDA is unambiguously to the contrary, and the legislative history casts no doubt on that mandate.
The legislative materials reveal Congress’ plain intent not to put pregnancy in a class by itself within Title VII, as the majority does with its “floor . . . not a ceiling” approach. Ante, at 285. The Senate Report clearly stated:
“By defining sex discrimination to include discrimination against pregnant women, the bill rejects the view that employers may treat pregnancy and its incidents as sui generis, without regard to its functional comparability to other conditions. Under this bill, the treatment of *299pregnant women in covered employment must focus not on their condition alone but on the actual effects of that condition on their ability to work. Pregnant women who are able to work must be permitted to work on the same conditions as other employees; and when they are not able to work for medical reasons, they must be accorded the same rights, leave privileges and other benefits, as other workers who are disabled from working.”2
The House Report similarly stressed that the legislation did not mark a departure from Title VII principles:
“It must be emphasized that this legislation, operating as part of Title VII, prohibits only discriminatory treatment. Therefore, it does not require employers to treat pregnant employees in any particular manner with respect to hiring, permitting them to continue working, providing sick leave, furnishing medical and hospital benefits, providing disability benefits, or any other matter. H. R. 6075 in no way requires the institution of any new programs where none currently exist. The bill would simply require that pregnant women be treated the same as other employees on the basis of their ability or inability to work.”3
*300The majority correctly reports that Congress focused on discrimination against, rather than preferential treatment of, pregnant workers. There is only one direct reference in the legislative history to preferential treatment. Senator Brooke stated during the Senate debate: “I would emphasize most strongly that S. 995 in no way provides special disability benefits for working women. They have not demanded, nor asked, for such benefits. They have asked only to be treated with fairness, to be accorded the same employment rights as men.”4 Given the evidence before Congress of the widespread discrimination against pregnant workers, it is probable that most Members of Congress did not seriously consider the possibility that someone would want to afford preferential treatment to pregnant workers. The parties and their amici argued vigorously to this Court the policy implications of preferential treatment of pregnant workers. In favor of preferential treatment it was urged with conviction that preferential treatment merely enables women, like men, to have children without losing their jobs. In opposition to preferential treatment it was urged with equal conviction that preferential treatment represents a resurgence of the 19th-century protective legislation which perpetuated sex-role stereotypes and which impeded women in their efforts to take their rightful place in the workplace. See, e. g., Muller v. Oregon, 208 U. S. 412, 421-423 (1908); Bradwell v. Illinois, 16 Wall. 130, 141 (1873) (Bradley, J., concurring). It is not the place of this Court, however, to resolve this policy dispute. Our task is to interpret Congress’ intent in enacting the PDA. Congress’ silence in its consideration of the PDA with respect to preferential treatment of pregnant workers cannot fairly be interpreted to abrogate the plain statements in the legislative history, not to mention the language of the statute, that equality of treatment was to be the guiding principle of the PDA.
*301Congress’ acknowledgment of state antidiscrimination laws does not support a contrary inference. Ante, at 287-288. The most extensive discussion of state laws governing pregnancy discrimination is found in the House Report.5 It was reported that six States, Alaska, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, Oregon, and Montana, and the District of Columbia specifically included pregnancy in their fair employment practices laws. In 12 additional States, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Massachusetts, Michigan, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Washington, and Wisconsin, the prohibition on sex discrimination in the state fair employment practices law had been interpreted, either by a state court or the state enforcement agency, to require equal treatment of pregnant workers. Finally, five States, California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island, had included pregnancy in their temporary disability laws under which private employers are required to provide partial wage replacement for temporary disabilities. The Report noted, however, that whereas California, New Jersey, and New York covered complications from pregnancy on the same basis as other disabilities, California, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island set maximum limits on the coverage required for disability associated with normal childbirth. The Report did not in any way set apart the Connecticut and Montana statutes, on which the majority relies, from the other state statutes. The House Report gave no indication that these statutes required anything more than equal treatment. Indeed, the state statutes were considered, not in the context of pre-emption, but in the context of a discussion of health insurance costs. The House Report expressly stated: “The significance of this State coverage” is that “many employers are already under a State law obligation to provide benefits to pregnant disabled workers. Passage of the bill thus has little or no economic impact on such employers.”6
*302Nor does anything in the legislative history from the Senate side indicate that it carefully considered the state statutes, including those of Connecticut and Montana, and expressly endorsed their provisions. The Senate Report noted that “25 States presently interpret their own fair employment practices laws to prohibit sex discrimination based on pregnancy and childbirth,” and Senator Williams presented during the Senate debate a list of States which required coverage for pregnancy and pregnancy-related disabilities, but there was no analysis of their provisions.7 The majority seems to interpret Senator Javits’ acknowledgment that several state legislatures, including New York, his own State, had mandated certain benefits for pregnant employees as an unqualified endorsement of those state statutes. Ante, at 287, n. 23. Later, however, when pressed by Senator Hatch about the fact that the New York statute limited the required coverage of disability caused by pregnancy to eight weeks, Senator Javits had no hesitation in expressing his disagreement with the New York statute.8 Passing reference to state statutes without express recognition of their content and without express endorsement is insufficient in my view to override the PDA’s clear equal-treatment mandate, expressed both in the statute and its legislative history.
The Court’s second, and equally strange, ground is that even if the PDA does prohibit special benefits for pregnant women, an employer may still comply with both the California law and the PDA: it can adopt the specified leave policies for pregnancy and at the same time afford similar benefits for all other disabilities. This is untenable. California surely had no intent to require employers to provide general disability leave benefits. It intended to prefer pregnancy and went no further. Extension of these benefits to the entire work force would be a dramatic increase in the scope of the state *303law and would impose a significantly greater burden on California employers. That is the province of the California Legislature. See Wengler v. Druggists Mutual Insurance Co., 446 U. S. 142, 152-153 (1980); Caban v. Mohammed, 441 U. S. 380, 392-393, n. 13 (1979); Craig v. Boren, 429 U. S. 190, 210, n. 24 (1976). Nor can § 12945(b)(2) be saved by applying Title VII in tandem with it, such that employers would be required to afford reinstatement rights to pregnant workers as a matter of state law but would be required to afford the same rights to all other workers as a matter of federal law. The text of the PDA does not speak to this question but it is clear from the legislative history that Congress did not intend for the PDA to impose such burdens on employers. As recognized by the majority, opposition to the PDA came from those concerned with the cost of including pregnancy in health and disability benefit plans. Ante, at 286. The House Report acknowledged these concerns and explained that the bill “in no way requires the institution of any new programs where none currently exist.”9 The Senate Report gave a similar assurance.10 In addition, legislator after legislator stated during the floor debates that the PDA would not require an employer to institute a disability benefits program if it did not already have one in effect.11 Congress intended employers to be free to *304provide any level of disability benefits they wished — or none at all — as long as pregnancy was not a factor in allocating such benefits. The conjunction of § 12945(b)(2) and the PDA requires California employers to implement new minimum disability leave programs. Reading the state and federal statutes together in this fashion yields a result which Congress expressly disavowed.
In sum, preferential treatment of pregnant workers is prohibited by Title VII, as amended by the PDA. Section 12945(b)(2) of the California Government Code, which extends preferential benefits for pregnancy, is therefore pre-empted. It is not saved by § 708 because it purports to authorize employers to commit an unfair employment practice forbidden by Title VII.12

 The same clear language preventing preferential treatment based on pregnancy forecloses respondents’ argument that the California provision can be upheld as a legislative response to leave policies that have a disparate impact on pregnant workers. Whatever remedies Title VII would otherwise provide for victims of disparate impact, Congress expressly ordered pregnancy to be treated in the same manner as other disabilities.

 S. Rep. No. 95-331, p. 4 (1977), Legislative History of the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978 (Committee Print prepared for the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources), p. 41 (1980) (Leg. Hist.).

 H. R. Rep. No. 95-948, p. 4 (1978), Leg. Hist. 150 (emphasis added). The same theme was also expressed repeatedly in the floor debates. Senator Williams, for example, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Labor and Human Resources and a sponsor of the Senate bill, described the bill as follows in his introduction of the bill to the Senate:
“The central purpose of the bill is to require that women workers be treated equally with other employees on the basis of their ability or inability to work. The key to compliance in every ease will be equality of treatment. In this way, the law will protect women from the full range of discriminatory practices which have adversely affected their status in the work force.” 123 Cong. Rec. 29385 (1977), Leg. Hist. 62-63.

 123 Cong. Rec. 29664 (1977), Leg. Hist. 136.

 H. R. Rep. No. 95-948, supra, at 10-11, Leg. Hist. 156-157.

 H. R. Rep. No. 95-948, supra, at 11, Leg. Hist. 157 (emphasis in original).

 S. Rep. No. 96-331, at 3, Leg. Hist. 40; 123 Cong. Rec. 29648 (1977), Leg. Hist. 91.

 123 Cong. Rec. 29654-29655 (1977), Leg. Hist. 108-110.

 H. R. Rep. No. 95-948, at 4, Leg. Hist. 150.

 S. Rep. No. 95-331, supra, at 4, Leg. Hist. 41.

 123 Cong. Rec. 7541 (1977), Leg. Hist. 8 (remarks of Sen. Brooke) (“[T]he bill being introduced would not mandate compulsory disability coverage”); 123 Cong. Rec., at 8145, Leg. Hist. 19 (remarks of Sen. Bayh) (“Under the provisions of our legislation, only those companies which already voluntarily offer disability coverage would be affected”); 123 Cong. Rec., at 10582, Leg. Hist. 25 (remarks of Rep. Hawkins) (“[A]n employer who does not now provide disability benefits to his employees will not have to provide such benefits to women disabled due to pregnancy or childbirth”); 123 Cong. Rec., at 29386, Leg. Hist. 64 (remarks of Sen. Williams) (“[T]his legislation does not require that any employer begin to provide health insurance where it is not presently provided”); 123 Cong. Rec., at *30429388, Leg. Hist. 71 (remarks of Sen. Kennedy) (“This amendment does not require all employers to provide disability insurance plans; it merely requires that employers who have disability plans for their employees treat pregnancy-related disabilities in the same fashion that all other temporary disabilities are treated with respect to benefits and leave policies”); 123 Cong. Rec., at 29663, Leg. Hist. 131 (remarks of Sen. Cranston) (“[S]ince the basic standard is comparability among employees, an employer who does not provide medical benefits at all, would not have to pay the medical costs of pregnancy or child birth”); 123 Cong. Rec., at 29663, Leg. Hist. 133 (remarks of Sen. Culver) (“The legislation before us today does not mandate compulsory disability coverage”).

 Section 12945(b)(2) does not require employers to treat pregnant employees better than other disabled employees; employers are free voluntarily to extend the disability leave to all employees. But if this is not a statute which “purports to . . . permit the doing of any act which would be an unlawful employment practice” under Title VII, I do not know what such a statute would look like. See, ante, at 290, n. 29.
Neither is § 12945(b)(2) saved by § 1104 of the Civil Rights Act since it is inconsistent with the equal-treatment purpose and provisions of Title VII.