Who should protect an individual from corporate mistreatment? To ''form a more perfect Union,'' our Constitution requires the three branches of government to make laws, interpret laws, and enforce laws that serve its citizens. Yet, all three branches of government failed Lilly Ledbetter, who sought redress under title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
First, Ms. Ledbetter's employer, Goodyear Tire Co., failed her. Ms. Ledbetter was hired to be a supervisor in Goodyear's Gadsden, Ala., plant. She was the only woman in the raft of men Goodyear also hired as supervisors in 1979. Each started at the same pay, but with a contract forbidding them to discuss their salaries with co-workers.
Then, her enforced ''silence'' failed her. On the eve of retirement, after 20 years of working for Goodyear, she learned that her income of $3,727 a month was 15 percent lower than the lowest paid man and 40 percent lower than the highest. It did not even meet Goodyear's own minimum wage requirement. Her pension suffered similarly.
Next, the courts failed her. Ms. Ledbetter filed a complaint with the EEOC and then, in 1998, sued Goodyear. She and other women employees convinced a jury of Goodyear's guilt. Ms. Ledbetter won Â... initially. The court rejected Goodyear's defense that, based on performance reviews, she had not deserved raises comparable to the men's and awarded her back pay, $4,662 for mental anguish, and over $3 million in punitive damages, which a judge reduced to a ''statutory cap'' of $300,000.
Goodyear took the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which by a 5-4 decision last May reversed the lower court on a procedural matter. Because Ledbetter had failed to file her complaint within 180 days of the first unfair pay check, it said, she forfeited any claim to compensation or justice. The court ruled that her subsequent salary did not demonstrate ''intent'' to discriminate. Justice Clarence Thomas, former head of the EEOC, was among those voting against Ms. Ledbetter.
Last week, Congress failed Ms. Ledbetter. Although the House passed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (HR 2831) the Senate, succumbing 56-42 to Republican antipathy, did not even bring it to the floor.
To his credit, Pennsylvania's senior senator, Arlen Specter -- no stranger to legal subtleties -- co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill, but was only one of only four Republicans to back it. Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supported it. Sen. John McCain did not.
President Bush, threatening a veto, was the last man to fail Lilly Ledbetter.
It is ironic that just as the courts, Congress, and President have converged to favor corporations over individuals, the economy is tanking. Perhaps, more equilibrium would permit all the spokes of society to flow and flourish.
(all credit can not be given to me, my wife helped write a good portion of it, throwing ideas at me that she know would work to put the full emotion into this post)