The Supreme Court, in a splintered decision, decided 6/10/02 that the statute of limitations for employment discrimination suits depends on the type of discrimination alleged. Plaintiffs alleging that a discrete act by an employer constitutes unlawful discrimination must file a charge with the EEOC within 180 or 300 days of the act (depending on the state), while plaintiffs alleging a hostile work environment may charge that a series of acts prior to that time are illegal, as long as one occurred within the 180- to 300-day time window.
Hostile work environment claims are treated differently because they involve repeated conduct that may occur over a period of days or even years. They involve an analysis of all the circumstances of the allegedly offensive workplace, including the frequency of the discriminatory conduct, its severity, whether it is physically threatening or humiliating, and whether it unreasonably interferes with an employee's work performance. All that the Court requires is that some act contributing to the claim fall within the statutory period. The Court tempered its broad interpretation of the time window for hostile work environment claims by emphasizing that an employer can raise fairness issues relating to a plaintiff's tardiness in filing suit.
Significantly, the Court left open “the timely filing question with respect to ‘pattern-or-practice’ claims brought by private litigants”—an issue arising typically in the class or collective action context.