Speaking of Workplace Harassment: A First Amendment Push Toward a Status-Blind Statute Regulating "Workplace Bullying"

Authors

Jessica R. Vartanian

Abstract

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 makes discrimination in employment unlawful, but only based on certain suspect classes: race, color, religion, sex, and national origin. Courts have interpreted the statute to ban workplace harassment in this same limited fashion, refusing to recognizg harassment claims based on sexual orientation or any other unspecified classification.Although Congress may regulate in this selective manner consistent with equal protection, workplace harassment differs from other forms of discrimination proscribed under Title VII in one very important respect—workplace harassment is often achieved through an array of expression traditionally protected under the First Amendment

First Page

175

Recommended Citation

Jessica R. Vartanian, Speaking of Workplace Harassment: A First Amendment Push Toward a Status-Blind Statute Regulating "Workplace Bullying", 65 Me. L. Rev. 175 (2012).
Available at: https://digitalcommons.mainelaw.maine.edu/mlr/vol65/iss1/8