A plaintiff claimed he was fired by his employer in retaliation for his fiancé’s submitting of an EEOC grievance in opposition to the identical employer. On January 24, 2011, the US Supreme Court docket unanimously held that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act protects a third-party reminiscent of a fiancé from employer retaliation based mostly on a co-employee’s protected exercise.The US Supreme Court docket held that Title VII’s antiretaliation provision should be construed to cowl a broad vary of employer conduct. The Court docket relied on the usual set forth in Burlington N. & S. F. R. Co. v. White (2006) 548 U.S. 53, which prohibits employers from acts that will dissuade an affordable employee from making or supporting a discrimination cost. The Supreme Court docket discovered that the Burlington normal should be utilized in an goal vogue, and located {that a} affordable employee clearly may be dissuaded from participating in protected exercise if she knew that her fiancé can be fired.The US Supreme Court docket additional discovered that Thompson was inside the “zone of interests” sought to be protected by Title VII’s antiretaliation provisions and had standing to sue as an aggrieved get together.Whereas it’s now clear that fiancés have the correct to sue for retaliation, the US Supreme Court docket declined to establish a set class of relationships for which third-party retaliation is illegal. Within the majority opinion, Justice Scalia states, “We expect that firing a close family member will almost always meet the Burlington standard, and that inflicting a milder reprisal on a mere acquaintance will almost never do so, but beyond that we are reluctant to generalize.” The Supreme Court docket went on to state that the importance of any given act of retaliation will usually rely on the actual circumstances. Consequently, the Supreme Court docket left open the query of whether or not third-parties reminiscent of associates of these making discrimination and sexual harassment complaints can succeed on retaliation claims.If you happen to really feel that you’ve been retaliated in opposition to at work due to your relationship with a coworker who has opposed sexual harassment or discrimination, it’s price exploring the information of your specific state of affairs with a educated retaliation legal professional to see when you have a viable case beneath the precedent set by this case.