Cyrus Mehri, a founding partner of Mehri & Skalet, participated in a panel discussion, "Employment Discrimination and the Future of Federal Courts," at the 2009 ACS National Convention. Following the panel discussion, Mehri talked with ACSblog about the challenges employees face in bringing discrimination lawsuits in the federal courts. Mehri noted a recent study by Cornell Law School Dean Stewart Schwab and Cornell Law School Professor Kevin Clermont showing that workers bringing employment discrimination lawsuits increasingly fare poorly in the federal courts. (That study, "Employment Discrimination Plaintiffs In Federal Court From Bad To Worse?" was published recently in the Harvard Law & Policy Review, the official journal of ACS.)
Mehri said that, "For most employees, most litigants, it is the U.S. appellate courts that have the final say. And when I testified in front of Senator Leahy and the Judiciary Committee in September, I called on them to really consider a much wider net of candidates for the pools that are being considered for the U.S. appellate courts."
Watch Mehri's interview below or download a video podcast here.
The Price of Discrimination
I couldn't agree more with Mr. Mehri. Employment discrimination is still pervades our society, whether it be based on race, gender, origin, or age. Few employees will have the funds not to mention will to fight a wrongful termination. Knowing that there's a high possibility that you'll fail in such an endeavor makes the likelihood that most people will bring an action even less, regardless of the strength of their case. This is counter to the purpose behind our justice system.
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