Supreme Court’s Two Decisions Based on Common Framework

For the Supreme Court, Friday’s two decisions on sexual harassment marked an unusual effort to announce a clear set of rules to govern what has been a confused area of law. Justices David H. Souter and Anthony M. Kennedy, in reading their opinions from the bench, said the court had agreed on a common framework. Both opinions included the same paragraphs.

They set forth three points:

* Employers are always liable for sexual harassment by supervisors if a victim suffers “a tangible employment action, such as a discharge, demotion or undesirable reassignment.”

* Even in the absence of such actions, employers are usually liable when employees are subjected to a “hostile environment,” such as lewd and abusive comments from a supervisor.

* However, in these instances, employers can avoid a big damage award if they can prove that they had “exercised reasonable care to prevent” harassment and that the victim “unreasonably failed to take advantage” of complaint procedures.