Court Opinion

ID: 9426816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:19:01.754339+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:02.783747
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Marshall,
with whom Mr. Justice Brennan joins, dissenting.
But for her sex, respondent Carolyn Evans presently would enjoy all of the seniority rights that she seeks through this litigation. Petitioner United Air Lines has denied her those rights pursuant to a policy that perpetuates past discrimination by awarding the choicest jobs to those possessing a *561credential married women were unlawfully prevented from acquiring: continuous tenure with United. While the complaint respondent filed in the District Court was perhaps inartfully drawn,1 it adequately draws into question this policy of United’s.
For the reasons stated in the Court’s opinion and in my separate opinion in Teamsters v. United States, ante, at 378,1 think it indisputable that, absent § 703 (h), the seniority system at issue here would constitute an “unlawful employment practice” under Title VII, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2 (a)(2) (1970 ed., Supp. V). And for the reasons developed at length in my separate opinion in Teamsters, ante, at 381-394,1 believe § 703 (h) does not immunize seniority systems that perpetuate post-Act discrimination.
The only remaining question is whether Ms. Evans’ complaint is barred by the applicable statute of limitations, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (e) (1970 ed., Supp. V). Her cause of action accrued, if at all, at the time her seniority was recomputed after she was rehired. Although she apparently failed to file a charge with the EEOC within 180 days after her seniority was determined, Title VII recognizes that certain violations, once commenced, are continuing in nature. In these instances, discriminatees can file charges at any time up to 180 days after the violation ceases. (They can, however, receive backpay only for the two years preceding the filing of charges with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (g) (1970 ed., Supp. V).) In *562the instant case, the violation — treating respondent as a new employee even though she was wrongfully forced to resign — is continuing to this day. Respondent’s charge therefore was not time barred, and the Court of Appeals judgment reinstating her complaint should be affirmed.2

 Although the District Court dismissed respondent’s complaint for lack of jurisdiction pursuant to Fed. Rule Civ. Proc. 12 (b)(1), the basis for its ruling was that the complaint was time barred. Thus, the dismissal closely resembles a dismissal for failure to state a claim upon which relief can be granted, and the only issue before us is whether “it appears beyond doubt that the plaintiff can prove no set of facts in support of [her] claim which would entitle [her] to relief.” Conley v. Gibson, 355 U. S. 41, 45-46 (1957).

 It is, of course, true that to establish her entitlement to relief, respondent will have to prove that she was unlawfully forced to resign more than 180 days prior to filing her charge with the EEOC. But if that is sufficient to defeat her claim, then discriminatees will never be able to challenge “practices, procedures, or tests . . . [which] operate to 'freeze’ the status quo of prior discriminatory employment practices,” Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, 430 (1971), even though Griggs holds that such practices are impermissible, and the legislative history of the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, 86 Stat. 103, indicates that Congress agrees, see Teamsters v. United States, ante, at 391-393 (Marshall, J., concurring in part and dissenting in part). The consequence of Ms. Evans’ failure to file charges after she was discharged is that she has lost her right to backpay, not her right to challenge present wrongs.