Court Opinion

ID: 9493791
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 15:19:38.448138+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:56:02.482500
License: Public Domain

EDMONDSON, Circuit Judge,
concurring:
I dissent from Judge Barkett’s dissent. In other words, I concur in the majority’s denial of rehearing en banc. I believe the panel’s decision is correct given the facts of the case. I will not repeat everything that was said in the panel opinion, but I do think these three points are important.
First, the panel’s decision does not hold (nor does it suggest) that a retaliation claim is impossible unless someone has first filed an applicable EEOC complaint. To read the opinion differently is inaccurate. We recognize that a plaintiff — in circumstances similar to those in this case, that is, a private employer’s internal investigation with no government involvement— might have protection under Title VII and that this protection would flow from the “opposition clause” of the Act.1
Second, because the pertinent statutory language is not really ambiguous, we are not free to engage in some kind of statutory construction to widen its scope. We avoided a forced reading; we read the whole statutory section in the ordinary way. The words “under this subchapter” appear at the end of the participation clause;2 and therefore, the. qualifying phrase “under this subchapter” applies only to the immediately preceding clause: the participation clause protects employees who participated in an investigation conducted “under this subchapter.” Those kinds of investigations are investigations tied to charges before the EEOC.
Third, applying the law as the panel does, does not defeat the plain purpose of Title VII. While policy implications should make little difference to a court once it— from the language of the statute itself— has determined what the law is, I do not concede that our decision creates bad policy or frustrates the spirit of the law. Applying the law as the panel does, may significantly advance the fulfillment of Title VII’s goals by encouraging employers to take responsibility, to engage in self-examination, and to resolve — speedily, internally and voluntarily — disputes involving claims of discrimination: resolutions without waiting for government intervention (itself a limited resource) and without too much fear (as long as the employer acts honestly) of potential, troublesome and costly litigation. Also, while we recognize some competing interests (as articulated in the important Faragher and El-*905lerth decisions) in Title VII cases between employees and employers, we believe that we do not disobey Faragher and Ellerth and that Congress, in the statute, has already balanced those interests. An employee who participates in an employer’s own internal investigation of discrimination is within the scope of the opposition clause and can be protected by the clause: for example, an employer cannot throw up just a pretext and get away with punishing an employee for speaking out. But, at the same time, an employer is allowed a bit more freedom in some of its personnel decisions when the employer acts voluntarily to investigate wrongful discrimination and takes the initiative in rooting out discrimination in the workplace: for example, an employee’s knowingly false statements are not protected.

. In this case, the defendant employer fired its employee because the employer, in good faith, believed she lied in an internal investigation that the employer was conducting on sexual harassment charges made about one of its supervisors, charges made by another employee. This supervisor was, by the way, fired for harassment.
The reason we distinguish between the participation and the opposition clauses is the way the EEOC argued its case to the panel. The EEOC drew sharp distinctions between the protection available under these clauses. "Unlike protection under the opposition clause, which is conditioned on the reasonableness of an employee’s opposition, protection under the participation clause is absolute, protecting an employee even when she lies.” Appellant Brief at p. 10-11 (citations omitted).

. The pertinent statute is written this way:
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to discriminate against any of his employees ... [1] because he [the employee] has opposed any practice made an unlawful employment practice by this subchapter, or [2] because he [the employee] has made a charge, testified, assisted, or participated in any manner in an investigation, proceeding, or hearing under this sub-chapter. (Words and numbers in brackets added.)