Issue: LEGISLATIVE HISTORY OF 1981a AND RELATED LAWS
| Area of Law: | Constitutional Law |
| Keywords: | Legislative history; § 1981a |
| Jurisdiction: | Federal |
| Cited Cases: | 528 U.S. 62; 506 U.S. 153; 489 U.S. 235; 424 U.S. 747; 242 U.S. 470; 504 U.S. 255; 499 U.S. 83; 522 U.S. 211; 511 U.S. 244; 512 U.S. 874; 381 U.S. 252; 523 U.S. 517; 496 U.S. 226; 447 U.S. 807; 511 U.S. 24; 514 U.S. 549; 422 U.S. 405; 530 U.S. 363; 514 U.S. 122; 522 U.S. 398; 507 U.S. 511; 511 U.S. 164 |
| Cited Statutes: | 18 U.S.C. § 1001; 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(3); Pub. L. 102-166 § 102(b)(2) (1991), 105 Stat. 1071, *1073 (1991); 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(3)(b)(2) (2000); 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g); 42 U.S.C. § 1981a(b)(2); Section 706(g) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 |
| Date: | 03/01/2001 |
The legislative history of § 1981a may support an argument that front pay is excluded from the statutory damage caps. As explained in Holder v. Hall, 512 U.S. 874 (1994), “resort to legislative history is only justified where the face of the statute is inescapably ambiguous.” Id. at 933 n.28 (Thomas, J., concurring). In Mohasco Corp. v. Silver, 447 U.S. 807 (1980), the Court considered the legislative history of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which, like the 1991 Act, took a long and arduous road to becoming law. Justice Stevens emphasized that the Court must recognize, “in light of the tempestuous legislative proceedings that produced the Act,” that “[t]he present language was clearly the result of a compromise. It is our task to give effect to the statute as enacted.” Id. at 818-19.
The Court’s “regular method for interpreting the meaning of language in a statute” is as follows:
[F]irst, find the ordinary meaning of the language in its textual context; and second, using established canons of construction, ask whether there is any clear indication that some permissible meaning other than the ordinary one applies. If not — and especially if a good reason for the ordinary meaning appears plain — we apply that ordinary meaning.
Chisom v. Roemer, 501 U.S. 380, 404 (1991) (Scalia, J., dissenting) (citing West Virginia Univ. Hosps., Inc. v. Casey, 499 U.S. 83, 98‑99 (1991); Demarest v. Manspeaker, 498 U.S. 184, 190 (1991); […]