Court Opinion

ID: 9426896
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:13.105918+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.833232
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Rehnquist,
with whom The Chief Justice joins, dissenting in part.
While I agree with Part II of the Court’s opinion, holding that §706 (f)(1), 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (f) (1) (1970 ed., Supp. V), does not impose a limitation on the power of the EEOC to file suit in a federal court, I do not agree with the Court’s conclusion in Part III that the EEOC is not bound by any limitations period at all. The Court’s actions, and the reasons which it assigns for them, suggest that it is more concerned with limitlessly expanding the important underlying statutory policy than it is with considerations traditionally dealt with by judges. Since I believe that a consistent line of opinions from this Court holding that, in the absence of a *374federal limitations period, the applicable state limitations period will apply, is being ignored by a process of unwarranted judicial legislation, I would reverse the judgment of the Court of Appeals in this case.
I
Since I agree with the Court that the Act contains no limitation on the time during which an enforcement suit may be brought by the EEOC, I also agree with it that the relevant inquiry is whether the most analogous state statute of limitations applies. Unless the United States is suing in its sovereign capacity, a matter which I treat below, the answer one would have derived before 'today from the opinions of this Court over a period of 140 years would surely have been “yes.” See, e. g., McCluny v. Silliman, 3 Pet. 270, 277 (1830); Campbell v. Haverhill, 155 U. S. 610 (1895); McClaine v. Rankin, 197 U. S. 154 (1905); Chattanooga Foundry & Pipe Works v. Atlanta, 203 U. S. 390 (1906); O’Sullivan v. Felix, 233 U. S. 318 (1914); Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U. S. 696 (1966); Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U. S. 454 (1975); Runyon v. McCrary, 427 U. S. 160 (1976).
The Court, however, today relies on basically two interrelated reasons for refusing to apply California’s applicable statute of limitations to suits brought by the EEOC. First, the Court postulates that “the Court has not mechanically applied a state statute of limitations simply because a limitations period is absent from the federal statute.” Ante, at 367. Second, “State legislatures do not devise their limitations periods with national interests in mind, and it is the duty of the federal courts to assure that the importation of state law will not frustrate or interfere with the implementation of national policies.” Ibid. Both of these assertions are created out of whole cloth; contrary to their tenor, neither statement, as applied to statutes of limitations, draws sustenance from *375any cases whatsoever. Rather, anything more than a superficial examination of precedent reveals that they are contrary to the established line of decisions of this Court.
This Court has long followed the rule that, unless the United States was suing in its sovereign capacity, “in the absence of any provision of the act of Congress creating the liability, fixing a limitation of time for commencing actions to enforce it, the statute of limitations of the particular State is applicable.” McClaine v. Rankin, supra, at 158. See also Cope v. Anderson, 331 U. S. 461, 463 (1947). The consistent nature of this history was described in Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., supra, at 703-704:
“As early as 1830, this Court held that state statutes of limitations govern the timeliness of federal causes of action unless Congress has specifically provided otherwise. M’Cluny v. Silliman, 3 Pet. 270, 277. In 1895, the question was re-examined in another context, but the conclusion remained firm. Campbell v. Haverhill, 155 U. S. 610. Since that time, state statutes have repeatedly supplied the periods of limitations for federal causes of action when federal legislation has been silent on the question. Yet when Congress has disagreed with such an interpretation of its silence, it has spoken to overturn it by enacting a uniform period of limitations. Against this background, we cannot take the omission in the present statute as a license to judicially devise a uniform time limitation for § 301 suits.” (Citations omitted.)
This general policy has been recently reaffirmed with respect to lawsuits brought under 42 U. S. C. § 1981, see Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, supra, at 462; Runyon v. McCrary, supra, at 180. Indeed, Johnson noted that “the express terms of 42 U. S. C. § 1988 suggest” that there is not “anything peculiar to a federal civil rights action that would justify special reluctance in applying state law.” 421 U. S., at 464. The Court fails to point to any case not involving the *376United States in its sovereign capacity, in which, the federal statute being silent, the applicable state limitations period was disregarded in favor of either a judge-made limitations period or, as here, no limitations period at all. There is simply no support for the proposition that a federally created right of action should impliedly be without temporal limitations. Indeed, Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, writing for the Court in 1805, observed that a case without a limitations period “would be utterly repugnant to the genius of our laws.” Adams v. Woods, 2 Cranch 336, 342 (1805). Yet, the Court today, without acknowledging the radical nature of its act, creates precisely such a situation.1
As for the second point, I can readily concede that the California Legislature did not specifically consider the federal interests underlying the enactment of Title VII. But this argument begs the question. This Court, in 1830, rejected the argument that a state statute of limitations should not apply because the State had not considered the federal policies. It stated, in McCluny v. Silliman, supra, at 277-278:
“It is contended that this statute cannot be so construed as to interpose a bar to any remedy sought against an officer of the United States, for a failure in the performance of his duty; that such a case could not have been contemplated by the legislature. . . .
*377“It is not probable that the legislature of Ohio, in the passage of this statute, had any reference to the misconduct of an officer of the United States. Nor does it seem to have been their intention to restrict the provision of the statute to any particular causes for which the action on the case will lie. . . .
“Where the statute is not restricted to particular causes of action, but provides that the action, by its technical denomination, shall be barred, if not brought within a limited time, every cause for which the action may be prosecuted is within the statute.”
Similar arguments were also rejected in construing § 301 of the Labor Management Relations Act, Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U. S., at 701-704. And in both Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, and Runyon v. McCrary, we followed, without hesitation, state limitations periods even though one would suppose that the federal policies underlying 42 U. S. C. § 1981 were of a magnitude comparable to those of Title VII and even though the general state statute of limitations would hardly have taken these policies into account.
The Court apparently rests its case on the authority of three opinions: Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., and Board of County Comm’rs v. United States, 308 U. S. 343 (1939). None are applicable. Johnson did not state, or hint, that “[s]tate limitations periods will not be borrowed if their application would be inconsistent with the underlying policies of the federal statute.” Ante, at 367. Rather, after concluding that the state limitations period applied, it turned, in a separate section of the opinion, to a question of tolling, 421 U. S., at 465, where the statement that “[ajlthough state law is our primary guide in this area, it is not, to be sure, our exclusive guide,” so heavily relied on by the Court today, is found. Nor does Auto Workers provide support for the Court: point*378ing to the longstanding history of constant interpretation that when the federal statute does not speak, the state limitations period applies, it rejected the argument that federal uniformity required a federal limitations period by stating that “there is no justification for the drastic sort of judicial legislation that is urged upon us,” 383 U. S., at 703. The last of the three cases, Board of County Comm’rs, is also irrelevant. It involved a suit brought by the United States in its sovereign capacity, to which it is clear state limitations period do not apply, 308 U. S., at 351. In any case, the language the Court points to, id., at 351-352, is in the context of a discussion of the absorption of substantive rights and liabilities, not in the context of a statute of limitations at all. The two are decisively different. See Auto Workers, 383 U. S., at 703 n. 4; see also id., at 701.
The premises of the majority, then, are supported, not by a slender reed, but by no reed at all. Perhaps the Court’s decision can be explained by its apparent fear that the application of the State’s limitations period will result in the anomaly of the statute’s running before the EEOC is entitled to bring its suit at all. Ante, at 369 n. 23. The Court notes, ante, at 368: “Unlike the typical litigant against whom a statute of limitations might appropriately run, the EEOC is required by law to refrain from commencing a civil action until it has discharged its administrative duties.” If this fear is the motivating reason behind the Court’s unusual action today, it rests on a misunderstanding of the nature of the application of a State’s limitations period to a federal action brought by the EEOC.
The EEOC may not bring a suit on behalf of a complainant for a violation of Title VII until 30 days after a charge is filed with the EEOC, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (f)(1) (1970 ed., Supp. V); see ante, at 360. It would appear that, as a matter of federal law, the EEOC’s cause of action accrues on that date, which is the date on which it first becomes entitled to *379sue. See, e. g., Cope v. Anderson, 331 U. S., at 464; McAllister v. Magnolia Petroleum Co., 357 U. S. 221 (1958). In this case, then, the EEOC would have one year, measured from that time, in which to bring suit under Cal. Code Civ. Proc. Ann. § 340 (3) (West Supp. 1977).2 Thus, the fears expressed by the Court are not well grounded. And while it is true that Congress, in enacting Title VII, chose “[c]ooperation and voluntary compliance ... as the preferred means of achieving” its goals, Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U. S. 36, 44 (1974), this is not, in the context of this case, a reason to ignore the state limitations period. We noted, in Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U. S., at 465, in response to similar arguments, that the “plaintiff . . . may ask the court to stay proceedings until the administrative efforts at conciliation and voluntary compliance have been completed.” The EEOC in this case is given 30 days plus the one-year limitations period; the fact, then, that there is a federal policy for the EEOC to attempt to achieve its goals by voluntary compliance does not seem to me to be a sound basis for ignoring state limitations periods. That policy is not without constraints, as the statute itself acknowledges. § 706 (f)(1).3 *380Given that, I am wholly unable to agree that the utilization of state statutes of limitations, which may be “as short as one year,” ante, at 371, trenches so severely on the structure or policies of Title VII to warrant this departure from precedent.4
II
In this case, Tamar Edelson filed her charge with the EEOC on December 27, 1970, when it was referred to the California Fair Employment Practices Commission in accordance with the provisions of 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (c). When that agency took no action, the charge was formally filed with the EEOC on March 9, 1971. The EEOC, then, had 1 year and 30 days from that point in which to investigate and attempt to secure voluntary compliance. Since the EEOC is directed to “make its determination on reasonable cause as promptly as possible and, so far as practicable, not later than one hundred and twenty days from the [formal] filing of the charge,” 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (b) (1970 ed., Supp. V), this time period of more than one year would appear ample to ensure that what the Court perceives to be federal policy, including voluntary settlement negotiations, is *381not unduly denigrated.5 Yet, here, the EEOC did not file its action in the District Court until February 22, 1974, almost three years after the formal filing of the charge. Since this is clearly outside the state limitations period, I would hold the action barred, unless the EEOC is to be considered to be suing on behalf of the United States in its sovereign capacity, a matter to which I now turn.
Insofar as the EEOC seeks to recover backpay for individuals, it stands in the shoes of the individuals, and represents them in a suit the individuals would otherwise be entitled to bring, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (f) (1) (1970 ed., Supp. V). Not only is the United States itself not a party to the suit, but the EEOC is vindicating a right which a private party was entitled to vindicate in his own right. Cf. Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., supra, at 45. Since the United States is not suing in its sovereign capacity, there is no reason to exempt these suits from the general application of state limitations statutes. The scope of the relevant inquiry *382was formed by this Court in United States v. Beebe, 127 U. S. 338, 344 (1888):
“The principle that the United States are not bound by any statute of limitations, nor barred by any laches of their officers, however gross, in a suit brought by them as a sovereign Government to enforce a public right, or to assert a public interest, is established past all controversy or doubt. United States v. Nashville &c. Railway Company, 118 U. S. 120, 125, and cases there cited. But this case stands upon a different footing, and presents a different question. The question is, Are these defences available to the defendant in a case where the Government, although a nominal complainant party, has no real interest in the litigation, but has allowed its name to be used therein for the sole benefit of a private person?”
As this has been interpreted, the decisive fact which excepts the general applicability of these statutes is that the United States is suing to enforce “its rights.” United States v. Summerlin, 310 U. S. 414, 416 (1940) (emphasis added); see also United States v. Nashville, C. & St. L. R. Co., 118 U. S. 120, 125 (1886); United States v. Des Moines Navigation & R. Co., 142 U. S. 510, 538-539 (1892); United States v. Bell Telephone Co., 167 U. S. 224, 264-265 (1897); French Republic v. Saratoga Vichy Co., 191 U. S. 427, 438 (1903). In Beebe itself, the Court acknowledged that “[t]he Government is charged with the duty ... to protect [the public domain] from trespass and unlawful appropriation . . . .” 127 U. S., at 342. See also Moran v. Horsky, 178 U. S. 205, 213 (1900). Yet this “interest” was not sufficient to make it a suit by the sovereign, unbounded by a limitations period. While the Government may be interested in the vindication of the policies enunciated in Title VII, cf. Franks v. Bowman Transportation Co., 424 U. S. 747, 778 n. 40 (1976) — as, *383presumably, it would be interested in vindicating the policies expressed in all congressional enactments — that is not the decisive fact. It is not “interest,” but whether the sovereign is suing to recover in its own right. Since here the suit is to recover backpay for an individual that could have brought her own suit, it is impossible to think that the EEOC was suing in the sovereign capacity of the United States. Cf. United States v. Beebe, supra, at 346. Rather, it is suing as a conduit for the recovery of sums due an individual citizen rather than the public treasury. The Court does not suggest otherwise.
The conclusion should be no different when we turn to the issue of injunctive relief. The decisive fact remains the same: The sovereign is not suing to redress “its” injury, rather it is seeking relief that the complaining individual otherwise would have been entitled to seek. While injunctive relief may appear more “broad based,” it nonetheless is redress for individuals. The United States gains nothing tangible as a result of the suit. It does, to be sure, vindicate a congressional policy by seeking to enjoin practices proscribed by Title VII, but, it bears repeating, presumably the Government vindicates some congressional policy whenever it sues. That, then, cannot be the test, for it would exalt form (who brings the suit) over substance (whom the suit directly benefits). For these reasons, I am unable to agree with the Ninth Circuit that because the EEOC promotes public policy by its prayer for injunctive relief, it therefore “seeks to vindicate rights belonging to the United States as sovereign,” 535 F. 2d 533, 537. This reason does not adequately distinguish a prayer for injunctive relief from a prayer by the EEOC for backpay for individuals.6
*384Since I believe that the EEOC's suit is barred by the running of the statute of limitations in Cal. Code Civ. Proc. Ann. § 340 (3) (West Supp. 1977), I respectfully dissent.

 In Campbell v. Haverhill, 155 U. S. 610, 615-616 (1895), this Court stated that it might not be necessary to follow a state statute of limitations which discriminated against or was “passed in manifest hostility to Federal rights or jurisdiction” or which gave such an unreasonably limited time to sue so as to “be within the competency of the courts to declare the same unconstitutional and void.” These narrowly delimited exceptions are wholly different from the approach the Court takes today in looking to whether the state statute “will not frustrate or interfere with the implementation of national policies.” Ante, at 367. (Emphasis added.) This open-ended standard would seem to render wholly superfluous the narrow exceptions discussed in Campbell.

 The District Court determined that this is the applicable statute of limitations.

 The Act gives the complaining party the right to disrupt the ostensible federal policy of voluntary settlement by filing suit during the “window” period from 180 to 270 days after “the filing of the charge or the expiration of any period of reference [from a state agency].” 42 U. S. C. §2000e-5 (f)(1) (1970 ed., Supp. V). The reason given for this option was that “the person aggrieved should [not] have to endure lengthy delays if the agency does not act with due diligence and speed.” 118 Cong. Rec. 4942 (1972); see id., at 7168. In light of this, it is odd to rely on the policy of “[c]ooperation and voluntary compliance” as invested with such overpowering importance as to sustain a result different from that reached in a long line of precedents prior to today. As we noted in Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U. S. 36, 44 (1974), the original intent in enacting Title *380VII was to establish an administrative procedure whereby the EEOC “would have an opportunity to settle disputes through conference, conciliation, and persuasion before the aggrieved party was •permitted to file a lawsuit.” (Emphasis added.) Whatever validity the administrative-procedure argument may have, then, is greatly weakened after the expiration of that 180-day period.

 In both Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, 421 U. S. 454 (1975), and Electrical Workers v. Robbins & Myers, Inc., 429 U. S. 229 (1976), this Court rejected arguments based, in part, on contentions that Title VII plaintiffs should be treated with special deference because Title VII served to vindicate important public interests. I fear that the Court today adopts, sub süentio, these previously rejected “Title VII-is-different” arguments as a way of approaching a statute notable for its expanses of congressional silence.

 While I agree that it is impossible to read 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (f) (1) (1970 ed., Supp. V) as a time limitation on the EEOC's right to bring suit, the existence of that limitations period on the individual’s right to bring suit is not without significance. I can perceive of no reason, and the legislative debates suggest none, why the private party’s right to sue is cut off 90 days after it is given, unless it is intended as a form of a limitations period. Yet, if Congress was concerned with a limitations period when the suit could be brought by the complaining party, it suggests that the Court is wrong in asserting that “the benchmark, for purposes of a statute of limitations” is simply the “commencement of the proceeding before the administrative body.” Ante, at 372. It also leads me to conclude that there is no reason not to allow the normal presumption to operate in this case, by limiting the EEOC’s right of action by the most analogous state limitations period. Cf. Auto Workers v. Hoosier Cardinal Corp., 383 U. S. 696, 704 (1966). I see nothing which affirmatively rebuts the longstanding doctrine that “the silence of Congress has been interpreted to mean that it is federal policy to adopt the local law of limitation.” Holmberg v. Armbrecht, 327 U. S. 392, 395 (1946).

 The EEOC is only entitled to bring suit after a complaint has been filed with it. Normally, therefore, it brings suit only after a complaining individual has filed a charge with it. “Individual grievants usually ini*384tiate the Commission’s investigatory and conciliatory procedures.” Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co., 415 U. S., at 45. While the 1972 amendments allow members of the EEOC to file charges, 42 U. S. C. §2000e-5 (b) (1970 ed., Supp. Y), this is not the normal method of initiating suit. Alexander, supra, at 45. Since this case does not involve the situation where the complaining individual is not the allegedly aggrieved party, I do not need to deal with the question of whether a different result would follow when the EEOC brings suit upon a complaint initiated by one of its members.