Court Opinion

ID: 9469139
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 02:33:01.745197+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:41:14.593692
License: Public Domain

MARKEY, Chief Judge,
dissenting:
With utmost respect, I must dissent. Convinced of error and given the opportunity, I record my conversion. If judicial decision making is to be truly independent, not only of the other Branches but of other judges, considerations of personal image, public reaction, or peer evaluation, can play no part. At the same time, a decent respect for the opinion of my distinguished colleagues requires this explanation. I cannot escape the considered conviction that the holding on jurisdiction — resulting in creation of a private action for interim relief— is here unwarranted, unnecessary, and unwise; unwarranted in law in view of the congressional intent reflected in the statutory scheme; unnecessary in view of 'the protection provided in that scheme; unwise in view of its impact on that scheme and on the judicial system.
Sheehan presents a pity-eliciting picture of remedy-denied employees suffering discrimination, discharge, and derogation by retaliating employers for 240 days between their initial state agency complaints and receipt of right-to-sue letters. Purolator sees a scenario in which every fairly discharged employee will file a frivolous discrimination complaint with EEOC on Monday morning and a federal court action to maintain the status quo on Monday afternoon. The first script is false. The second is born of conjecture and uncertain predictions. Neither is helpful or appropriate here. If either has merit, it should be presented to the Congress, where lies the capacity and charter to modify the procedural scheme mandated in section 706 of Title VII.
On the undisputed and material facts of record, Sheehan filed with EEOC a charge of discrimination in January, 1981. Within four days of an alleged act of retaliation, she filed this private injunctive action in federal court on April 3, 1981. She stayed proceedings on her discrimination charge filed with the state of New York. She did not ask the EEOC to seek interim relief. The EEOC has not investigated her retaliation allegation or determined that prompt judicial action is necessary. Because, as the majority opinion so well states, jurisdiction is here the sole issue, the question of whether retaliation actually occurred is irrelevant.
On the law, what is certain is what Congress did in Title VII. It: (1) selected conciliation as the primary methodology for defeat of discrimination in the workplace; (2) authorized private actions only after a set period it deemed necessary to give conciliation a chance; (3) authorized EEOC, after investigation and when necessary, to seek injunctions against retaliation during the conciliation period; and (4) did not authorize a private action for interim injunc*888tive relief from retaliation during the conciliation period. Whether Congress should have authorized this last is, of course, beyond the ken of the courts.

(1) Unwarranted in Law

The majority opinion candidly recognizes that jurisdiction cannot be here found in the statute. If jurisdiction exists, its genesis must be found in “the traditional powers of the federal courts” and the broad “purposes of the statute.” Whatever may be the applicability of those sources of jurisdiction to other circumstances, I find them singularly unhelpful here.1
Whatever may be their “traditional powers,” federal courts are courts of limited jurisdiction. Nor is there ever a presumption of jurisdiction. Federal court jurisdiction, to transfer Holmes’ phrase, is not a “brooding omnipresence,” there to be exercised whenever not forbidden. That the federal courts possess equity powers is today undeniable. I cannot, however, find that Congress intended the courts to exercise those powers in the present circumstances.2
As I read the statute, Congress has not been silent “as to the details of a scheme for the enforcement of its legislation.” Congress simply has not said, “Our purpose is to eradicate employment discrimination. For details, take this purpose to the nearest federal courthouse.” On the contrary, what Congress did say was a specific spelling out of the details of the scheme for enforcement of Title VII outlined above.
Indeed, Congress has not been “silent” on enforcement of the specific law against retaliation involved here. In providing for injunctive relief at behest of EEOC, Congress did not mention a private right of action, but that cannot in my view be equated to a “silence of Congress as to the details of a scheme for enforcement of its legislation.” In enacting § 706(f)(2), Congress, fully aware of traditional court powers, delegated the achievement of the purpose of that section to the EEOC, stating that EEOC could seek interim relief after concluding that “prompt judicial action is necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act,” It cannot be within the traditional powers of the federal courts to fill every void a court may visualize in congressional legislation; but if it were, there is no void detectable in the present statute.
The powers of federal courts have been the subject of controversy since long before those courts were born.3 On whether those powers include the power to create a pri*889vate right of action the courts themselves have not been unanimous.4 In Sampson v. Murray, 415 U.S. 61, 94 S.Ct. 937, 39 L.Ed.2d 166 (1974), the Supreme Court, unlike the majority here, declined the “intellectually neater” approach of separately treating the question of jurisdiction from that of the merits of a government employee’s request for injunctive relief, id. at 68, 94 S.Ct. at 942. The court denied relief because the Back Pay Act precluded a finding that the discharge there complained of could constitute irreparable harm.
Whatever guidance may be gleaned from Sampson,5 the Court spoke in clear terms respecting the comprehensive scheme set forth in Title VII, and the relationship of that scheme to the powers of the federal courts, in Northwest Airlines, Inc. v. TWU, 451 U.S. 77, 101 S.Ct. 1571 (1981). Though that case involved creation of a private action for employers claiming contribution from a union to payment of damages for discrimination, the statement of principles governing a proper judicial approach to Title VII appears equally applicable to the present creation of a private action for employees claiming retaliation:
“In determining whether a federal statute that does not expressly provide for a particular private right of action nonetheless implicitly created that right, our task is one of statutory construction.” Id. at 91, 101 S.Ct. at 1580.
*890“The structure of the statutes similarly counsels against recognition of the implied right petitioner advocates in this case. The Equal Pay Act and Title VII establish comprehensive programs designed to eliminate certain varieties of employment discrimination. The statutes make express provision for private enforcement in certain carefully defined circumstances, and provide for enforcement at the instance of the Federal Government in other circumstances. The comprehensive character of the remedial scheme expressly fashioned by Congress strongly evidences an intent not to authorize additional remedies. It is, of course, not within our competence as federal judges to amend these comprehensive enforcement schemes by adding to them another private remedy not authorized by Congress.” [Footnotes omitted] Id. at 93-94, 101 S.Ct. at 1581.
“Of course, such legislative silence is often encountered in implied right of action cases; it is to be expected that ‘the legislative history of a statute that does not expressly create or deny a private remedy will typically be equally silent or ambiguous on the question.’ Therefore, ‘the failure of Congress expressly to consider a private remedy is not inevitably inconsistent with an intent on its part to make such a remedy available.’ But unless this congressional intent can be inferred from the language of the statute, the statutory structure, or some other source, the essential predicate for implication of a private remedy simply does not exist.” [Citations omitted] Id. at 94, 101 S.Ct. at 1581.
“Although it is much too late to deny that there is a significant body of federal law that has been fashioned by the federal judiciary in the common-law tradition, it remains true that federal courts, unlike their state counterparts, are courts of limited jurisdiction that have not been vested with open-ended lawmaking powers.” Id. at 95, 101 S.Ct. at 1582.
“The liability of petitioner for discriminating against its female cabin attendants is entirely a creature of federal statute. In almost any statutory scheme, there may be a need for judicial interpretation of ambiguous or incomplete provisions. But the authority to construe a statute is fundamentally different from the authority to fashion a new rule or to provide a new remedy which Congress has not decided to adopt. The presumption that a remedy was deliberately omitted from a statute is strongest when Congress has enacted a comprehensive legislative scheme including an integrated system of procedures for enforcement. Both the Equal Pay Act and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 are such statutes. The judiciary may not, in the face of such comprehensive legislative schemes, fashion new remedies that might upset carefully considered legislative programs.” [Citation and footnote omitted] Id. at 97, 101 S.Ct. at 1583.
In note 30, Id. at 97, 101 S.Ct. at 1583, the Court quoted from National Railroad Passenger Corp. v. National Association of Railroad Passengers, 414 U.S. 453, 458, 94 S.Ct. 690, 693, 38 L.Ed.2d 646 (1974): “A frequently stated principle of statutory construction is that when legislation expressly provides a particular remedy or remedies, courts should not expand the coverage of the statute to subsume other remedies.” As appears below, the expansion achieved by the majority here would subsume, indeed consume, the statutory remedy by rendering EEOC actions for interim relief under § 706(f)(2) unnecessary.
The Court did note in Northwest Airlines that employers are not members of the class for whose special benefit Title VII was enacted, but went on, in note 31, Id. 451 U.S. at 94, 101 S.Ct. at 1581, to state: “In a case in which neither the statute nor the legislative history reveals a congressional intent to create a private right of action for the benefit of the plaintiff, we need not carry the Cort v. Ash, 422 U.S. 66, 95 S.Ct. 2080, 45 L.Ed.2d 26 (1975), inquiry further.” Where, as here, Congress has not ignored or rendered impotent the intended class of beneficiaries, but has on the contrary provided a specific and fully adequate proce*891dure for its protection, no warrant would appear for interlocutory judicial intervention circumventing those procedures, in disregard of the principles set forth by the Court in Northwest Airlines as governing requests for judicial modification of Title VII.6

(2) Unnecessary

It is undisputed that Congress provided protection of complaining employees against employer retaliation in the form of a court action by EEOC. § 706(f)(2).7 Nothing of record establishes error in the district court’s finding that § 706(f)(2) provides an “adequate legal remedy”. Amicus EEOC’s unsupported assertions in a brief, respecting an inability to do its job, can hardly substitute for evidence that the congressionally designed remedy is inadequate.8 Moreover, if on a proper record the congressionally designed remedy were shown to be inadequate, it would not in my view be the proper role of the court in this case to create a new remedy of its own design. The implied private right of action here judicially created is simply unnecessary in view of the EEOC action designed by Congress in § 706(f)(2).9
Creation of a federal private action for interim relief is unnecessary here also in view of the clear and fully adequate state remedies available. Section 706(c) of Title VII requires the commencement of state proceedings sixty days before filing a charge with the EEOC in those states which, like New York, prohibit employment practices unlawful under Title VII.10 Sheehan could have sought, and on proper proof obtained, immediate injunctive relief, the very relief sought here, in state court.11 There is no evidence or even argument, nor could there be, that New York’s agencies and courts are less capable, competent, or compassionate than are the federal courts in the enforcement of anti-employment discrimination laws.12 Where a fully adequate state remedy is provided, and particularly where, as here, preliminary employment of that state remedy is mandated by Congress, it would appear both unnecessary and inappropriate for the federal judiciary to create a federal remedy supplantive of that state remedy.

*892
(3) Unwise

The wisdom informing the policy of creating a private action, whether the creator be legislature or court, is, of course, an irrelevant consideration in the courtroom. Policy considerations are implicated, however, in those portions of the majority opinion emphasizing a perceived necessity of creating such an action to effectuate “the purposes of the statute.” In my view, the holding that the district court has jurisdiction to entertain a private action for interim injunctive relief against retaliation is unwise because it works against, not toward, the purposes of the statute.13
As above indicated, the comprehensive scheme set forth in Title VII envisions a series of steps: (1) An employee believing himself a victim of discrimination must first file a charge, with his state agency when such agency is available, directly with the EEOC when a state agency is not available; (2) An employee must give conciliation by an available state agency 60 days to work before filing with the EEOC; (3) The EEOC has 180 days in which to make conciliation work; (4) If the EEOC finds no basis for the charge or otherwise declines action, the employee receives a “right-to-sue” letter;14 (5) If EEOC does nothing after 180 days, the employee may sue; (6) If the employee believes himself the victim of retaliation, he notifies the EEOC; (7) The EEOC will investigate the charge of retaliation; (8) If, after its investigation, the EEOC determines that prompt judicial action is necessary “to carry out the purposes of this Act,” it may file an action for interim injunctive relief.
The holding here that the district court has jurisdiction, by-passes all of the administrative procedures intended by Congress to be employed in dealing with retaliation. It dilutes, if it does not obviate the statutorily required conciliation effort. It enables Sheehan and all employed residents of New York to circumvent all administrative and court proceedings established by that state for dealing with retaliation. It renders redundant the congressionally designed procedure for EEOC action against retaliation. Enabling the individual to do what Congress said the EEOC must not do, it confronts the federal courts with non-investigated charges of retaliation and situations in which EEOC has not determined that prompt judicial action is necessary. It burdens busy district courts with cases in which those courts are not only denied the experienced evaluation of EEOC but with cases in which EEOC may have investigated and found that prompt judicial relief was not necessary. In sum, the holding here undermines in my view the entire congressional plan for measured, conciliatory steps.
Far from serving the “spirit” of Title VII, the present holding would appear in direct contradiction of the congressional intent and purpose expressed in the legislative history:
“It is hoped that recourse to the private lawsuit will be the exception and not the rule, and that the vast majority of complaints will be handled through the offices of the EEOC or the Attorney General, as appropriate.” 118 Cong.Rec. 7168 (1972).
*893“However, in those eases where the need for preliminary relief is serious — including but in no way limited to situations where aggrieved persons are transferred, fired, or otherwise harassed for bringing other charges before the Commission— the Commission is expected to act swiftly in issuing a complaint so that the person aggrieved will not be harmed by a delay between the time his charge is filed and the issuance of the complaint by the Commission.” S.Rep.No.415, 92d Cong. 1st Sess. (1971) at 21, 22.
Thus Congress was fully alert to the potential need for preliminary relief against retaliation. In providing for necessary suits by EEOC only after investigation, it preserved its expressed purpose and intent that private lawsuits should be the “exception.” The present holding defeats that intention.15
In attempting to protect Congress’ broad purpose against what it views as an obstacle, the majority appears to have disregarded that portion of Congress’ action relating to the impact of Title YII on the judicial system. A Congress frequently criticized for vastly increasing the jurisdiction of the courts, with insufficient concern for the impact of its legislation on those institutions, has here supplied a buffer against improvidently or merely strategically filed private actions, requiring that actions for interim relief against retaliation be filed by EEOC and limiting even those actions to those found necessary after an investigation.16 To defeat a laudable congressional solicitation for the crowded dockets of the courts, by creating an unwarranted and unnecessary private action, is at best unwise.17
I would affirm the district court’s judgment dismissing the action for lack of jurisdiction.

. That complainant has no private right of action for interim injunctive relief against discrimination itself, but is required by Congress to await completion of the 180 day conciliation period before employing the judicial process, would appear to argue against, not for, the creation of a private right of action against retaliation. Indeed, the argument based on the “traditional powers of the federal courts” and Congress’ broad purpose of eradicating discrimination, and the assertion that it is needed because EEOC can’t perform its statutory role, would appear to apply with equal force to the creation of a private right of action for interim injunctive relief against discrimination before receipt of a right-to-sue letter.

. Denial of the private right of action here sought would accord with congressional and judicial rejection of that right in analogous labor-management contexts. See Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America v. Richman Bros. Co., 348 U.S. 511, 75 S.Ct. 452, 99 L.Ed. 600 (1955) (denying interim relief under the National Labor Relations Act, which “The framers of Title VII stated that they were using ... as a model.” Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U.S. 405, 419 n.11, 95 S.Ct. 2362, 2372, n.11, 45 L.Ed.2d 280 (1975)); National Federation of Federal Employees v. Commandant, Defense Language Institute, 493 F.Supp. 675 (N.D.Calif.1980) (Federal Labor Management Relations Act); Taylor v. Brighton Corp., 616 F.2d 256 (6th Cir. 1980) (Occupational Safety and Health Act); Marchak v. Observer Publications, Inc., 493 F.Supp. 278 (D.R.I.1980) (Fair Labor Standards Act).

. There was deep distrust of a federal judicial system in the Constitutional Convention. See Farrand, The Records of the Federal Convention (Rev.Ed.1937); Prescott, Drafting the Federal Constitution, ch. 17 (1941). There was concern that the federal judiciary would find that it had jurisdiction to achieve broad purposes of federal statutes. See 3 Elliott, Debates, 565. Early on, the Supreme Court held that the inferior federal courts received no powers directly from the Constitution, but only such authority as may be vested in them by Congress, Turner v. Bank of North-America, 4 Dall 7, 1 L.Ed. 718 (1799); McIntire v. Wood, 7 *889Cranch 504, 3 L.Ed. 420 (1813); Kendall v. United States, 12 Pet 524, 9 L.Ed. 1181 (1838); Cary v. Curtis, 3 How 236, 11 L.Ed. 576 (1845), and that for jurisdiction to exist the Constitution must have given the capacity to take it and an act of Congress must have supplied it. The Mayor v. Cooper, 6 Wall. 247, 252, 18 L.Ed. 851 (1869).

. Drew v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 480 F.2d 69 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 417 U.S. 935, 94 S.Ct. 2650, 41 L.Ed.2d 239 (1974) does not for me carry the weight it carries for the majority. Drew had a right-to-sue letter before the district court ruled on her injunction motion, and EEOC had filed under § 706(f)(2). The discussion in Drew of a private right to interim injunctive relief was therefore pure dicta. Moreover, the three pronged reasoning in Drew was flawed. Its analogy to Sanders v. Dobbs Houses, Inc.,. 431 F.2d 1097 (5th Cir. 1970) fails because jurisdiction in Sanders rested on 42 U.S.C. § 1981, where a claimant “is not burdened with the procedural prerequisites of Title VII.” Troy v. Shell Oil Co., 378 F.Supp. 1042, 1047 (E.D.Mich.1974), appeal dismissed as moot, 519 F.2d 403 (6th Cir. 1975). The concern that EEOC was too busy is in my view a broken reed on which to hang a finding of jurisdiction. The view that the 1972 amendments to Title VII did not “repeal” a pre-existing right of private interim actions erroneously assumed the existence of such a right. The district courts of this circuit have expressed varying views: Bridgeport Housing Authority Police Force v. Bridgeport, 85 F.R.D. 624, 649 (D.Conn.1980); McCarthy v. Cortland Com. Action, 487 F.Supp. 333 (N.D.N.Y.1980). The majority’s reliance on Berg v. Richmond Unified School District, 528 F.2d 1208 (9th Cir. 1975), and McNail v. Amalgamated Meatcutters and Butcher Workmen, 549 F.2d 538 (8th Cir. 1977), is misplaced. Both involved alternafive bases of jurisdiction, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and a right-to-sue letter in Berg and 29 U.S.C. § 411(a)(1) in McNail, the only reference to jurisdiction under Title VII in McNail appearing in a short footnote. The First and Seventh Circuits have observed that there are disparate views on whether the rationale of Drew comports with the congressional intent expressed in Title VII: Hochstadt v. Worcester Foundation For Experimental Biology, 545 F.2d 222, 226 (1st Cir. 1976); Berg v. LaCrosse Cooler Co., 548 F.2d 211, 212 (7th Cir. 1977).

. In Sampson, the Court distinguished FTC v. Dean Foods Co., 384 U.S. 597, 86 S.Ct. 1738, 16 L.Ed.2d 802 (1966), relied on here by the majority, on the ground that exercise of court power under the All Writs Act was required in Dean Foods to preserve the jurisdiction of the FTC and through it the jurisdiction of the court. There is no need or basis for involving the All Writs Act here, for there is no question that the court’s jurisdiction over Sheehan’s discrimination claims on the merits will be preserved, regardless of the result reached on this appeal. In Sampson, 415 U.S. at 78, 94 S.Ct. at 947, the Court quoted its observation in Scripps-Howard Radio v. FCC, 316 U.S. 4, 11, 62 S.Ct. 875, 880, 86 L.Ed. 1229 (1942), that “[t]he search for significance in the silence of Congress is too often the pursuit of a mirage,” yet went on to say it was “not prepared to conclude that Congress in this class of cases has wholly divested the district courts of their customary authority to grant temporary injunctive relief.” (Emphasis added.) Sampson is of interest here for its indication that availability of back pay after a determination on the merits will normally preclude a finding of irreparable harm. Title VII (42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g)) provides for back pay, reinstatement, and “other equitable relief as the court deems appropriate” after a final determination on the merits.

. Quoting from American Fire & Casualty Co. v. Finn, 341 U.S. 6, 17, 71 S.Ct. 534, 541, 95 L.Ed. 702 (1951), this court has warned that “[t]he jurisdiction of the federal courts is carefully guarded against expansion by judicial interpretation.” DeMatteis v. Eastman Kodak Co., 511 F.2d 306, 311, modified 520 F.2d 409 (2d Cir. 1975).

. It is bootless to cite references in the legislative history to the truism that “the individual’s rights to redress are paramount.” There is no question of whose rights are paramount. The question is how Congress intended those rights to be enforced. The obvious statement that rights to be free of discrimination reside in the discriminatee can hardly be equated with a congressional grant of jurisdiction to entertain a private right of action that by-passes the congressionally-designed scheme for enforcing those rights.

. Congress was fully aware of the agency’s workload in 1972. Its response was not to create a private right of action but to confer upon EEOC a right to seek interim relief. If events since 1972 show that Congress erred in that response, or if EEOC needs more to do its job, the problem is one for Congress, not the courts. Meanwhile, bare allegations that EEOC is overworked come with poor grace from Sheehan, who never asked EEOC to act under § 706(f)(2), and from an EEOC whose then Chair informed the Congress that EEOC had by 1979 reduced its average time to process a charge to 60 days. Oversight Hearings on Federal Enforcement of EEOC Laws Before the Subcommittee on Employment Opportunities of the House Comm, on Education and Labor, 96th Cong., 1st Sess. 40 (1979).

. A private action is provided for in § 706(f)(1), and not in § 706(f)(2). “[Wjhere a statute with respect to one subject contains a specific provision, the omission of such a provision from a similar statute is significant to show a different intent existed.” Richerson v. Jones, 551 F.2d 918, 928 (3rd Cir. 1977), quoting from General Electric Co. v. Southern Construction Co., 383 F.2d 135, 138 n.4 (5th Cir. 1967).

. Executive Law § 296(l)(a) (McKinney Supp. 1972-80) (sex discrimination); Executive Law § 296(l)(e) (McKinney Supp. 1072-80) (retaliation).

. Executive Law § 296(9) (McKinney).

. New York courts have been sensitive to claims of retaliation. See Axel v. Duffy-Mott Co., 47 N.Y.2d 1, 416 N.Y.S.2d 554, 389 N.E.2d 1075 (1979).

. In my view, the district court’s inherent equitable power, though doubtless existing, does not encompass jurisdiction to grant Sheehan’s request for injunctive relief, in the face of the congressional intent reflected in the language, structure and history of § 706. That specific statutory intent overrides general equitable principles. See Arrow Transportation Co. v. Southern Railway Co., 372 U.S. 658, 667-669, 83 S.ct. 984, 988-90, 10 L.Ed.2d 52 (1963). Similarly, that the court has subject matter jurisdiction does not end the inquiry. FTC v. Standard Oil of California, 449 U.S. 232, 101 S.ct. 488, 66 L.Ed.2d 416 (1980).

. It is settled that the courts have no jurisdiction to entertain an employee’s suit on the merits of the basic charge until the employee has his right-to-sue letter. See, e.g., General Telephone Co. v. EEOC, 446 U.S. 318, 326, 100 s.ct. 1698, 1704, 64 L.Ed.2d 319 (1980); Gladstone, Realtors v. Village of Bellwood, 441 U.S. 91, 104-05 n.12, 99 S.Ct. 1601, 1610, 60 L.Ed.2d 66 (1979); Johnson v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 421 U.S. 454, 458, 95 S.Ct. 1716, 1719, 44 L.Ed.2d 295 (1975); McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U.S. 792, 798, 93 S.Ct. 1817, 1822, 36 L.Ed.2d 668 (1973).

. Congress carefully differentiated between the rights to enforce accorded EEOC and those granted private parties. See, e.g., section 706(b) (authorizing an individual or a Commissioner to file a charge); section 706(f)(l)(autho-rizing the EEOC and persons aggrieved to intervene in suits filed by the other — but limiting the EEOC’s power to do so); section 706(f)(1) (permitting an individual plaintiff, but not the EEOC, to commence an action without payment of costs, fees or security); section 706(k) (permitting parties, but not the EEOC, to recover costs and attorney’s fees). Congress’ election not to specify a private cause of action in enacting section 706(f)(2)’s grant of jurisdiction cannot be said to have been inadvertent.

. In refusing to create a private right of action to enforce the no-retaliat'on provision of the Occupational Safety and Health Act in Taylor v. Brighton Corp., 616 F.2d at 262, the court employed language fully applicable here:
[It is] unlikely that Congress, having deliberately interposed the Secretary’s investigation as a screening mechanism between complaining employees and the district courts, intended to permit those employees whose claims are screened out to file individual actions in those same courts.

. The harm is done on creation of the private right of action. The holding here cannot but add to the Niagra of litigation inundating the courts. That it may be impossible, as it was here, to establish irreparable harm, does not free the courts of the need for discovery rulings, motions, hearings and the entire panoply of litigation steps leading to that determination.