U.S. Supreme Court Decides Case From Tennessee

On January 26, 2009, the United States Supreme Court handed down its opinion in the case of Crawford v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County. The Court held that Title VII’s antiretaliation provision protects an employee who speaks out about discrimination in answering questions during an employer’s internal investigation. The opinion, authored by Justice Souter, said that such speech is protected under the statute's “opposition” clause and that Title VII does not call for "a freakish rule protecting an employee who reports discrimination on her own initiative but not one who reports the same discrimination in the same words when asked a question.”