Robinson v Shell Oil Company
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''Robinson v. Shell Oil Company'', 519 U.S. 337 (1997), is
US labor law United States labor law sets the rights and duties for employees, labor unions, and employers in the United States. Labor law's basic aim is to remedy the "inequality of bargaining power" between employees and employers, especially employers "org ...
case in the
United States Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
in which the Court unanimously held that under federal law, U.S. employers must not engage in
workplace discrimination Employment discrimination is a form of illegal discrimination in the workplace based on legally protected characteristics. In the U.S., federal anti-discrimination law prohibits discrimination by employers against employees based on age, race, ...
such as writing bad job references, or otherwise retaliating against former employees as a punishment for filing job discrimination complaints.


Facts

The case involved a former Shell employee, Charles T. Robinson, who claimed
Shell Oil Company Shell USA, Inc. (formerly Shell Oil Company, Inc.) is the United States-based wholly owned subsidiary of Shell plc, a UK-based transnational corporation " oil major" which is amongst the largest oil companies in the world. Approximately 18,0 ...
fired him from his sales job because he is black. While his race discrimination lawsuit was pending, Robinson applied for a job with another company who contacted Shell seeking a reference. Shell gave Robinson an unfavourable rating and said it would not rehire him. The
Equal Employment Opportunity Commission The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is a federal agency that was established via the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to administer and enforce civil rights laws against workplace discrimination. The EEOC investigates discrimination ...
submitted a " friend of the court" brief, saying that if former employees were not protected, they "would be chilled from taking action to report or oppose discrimination."Biscupic, J. Court Protects Ex-Employees From Retaliation; Decision in Maryland Case Affects Firms Subjected to Job Discrimination Complaints. The Washington Post, February 19, 1997, p. A6. Under ยง704(a) of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it is unlawful "for an employer to discriminate against any of his employees or applicants for employment" who have availed themselves of Title VII's protections. The company claimed that because Robinson was now a former employee, because they fired him, he was no longer protected.


Judgment

The Court agreed with the view expressed by the EEOC.
Thomas J Clarence Thomas (born June 23, 1948) is an American jurist who serves as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States. He was nominated by President George H. W. Bush to succeed Thurgood Marshall and has served since 19 ...
wrote for the court, "EEOC quite persuasively maintains that it would be destructive to he purposes of anti-bias lawfor an employer to be able to retaliate with impunity."


Significance

Robinson eventually lost his original race discrimination case against Shell Oil Company.


See also

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List of United States Supreme Court cases This page serves as an index of lists of United States Supreme Court cases. The United States Supreme Court is the highest federal court of the United States. By Chief Justice Court historians and other legal scholars consider each Chief J ...
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Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume The following is a complete list of cases decided by the United States Supreme Court organized by volume of the ''United States Reports'' in which they appear. This is a list of volumes of ''U.S. Reports'', and the links point to the contents of e ...
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List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court This is a partial chronological list of cases decided by the United States Supreme Court during the Rehnquist Court, the tenure of Chief Justice William Rehnquist from September 26, 1986, through September 3, 2005. The cases are listed chronol ...
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United States labor law United States labor law sets the rights and duties for employees, labor unions, and employers in the United States. Labor law's basic aim is to remedy the "inequality of bargaining power" between employees and employers, especially employers "org ...


Notes


External links

* United States employment discrimination case law United States Supreme Court cases United States Supreme Court cases of the Rehnquist Court 1997 in United States case law Royal Dutch Shell litigation United States racial discrimination case law {{SCOTUS-stub