United States Fourth Circuit

In an employment discrimination suit against companies owned by Native Alaskans alleging violations of 42 U.S.C. section 1981 and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, summary judgment for defendants is affirmed in part where any duty to explain the provisions of a collective bargaining agreement to employees with limited English skills belongs principally with the union which represents them, but reversed in part where the exemption from suit under Title VII enjoyed by Alaska Native Corporations does not immunize the defendants from suit under the separate and independent cause of action established by Section 1981.

Appellate Information

• Argued 03/13/2007
• Decided 05/03/2007
• Published 05/03/2007

Judges

• Before WILKINSON and KING, Circuit Judges, and T.S. ELLIS, III, Senior United States District Judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, sitting by designation.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  Eric Kenneth Bachman, Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, P.L.L.C., Washington, D.C., for Appellants.  Harvey Alan Levin, Thompson & Coburn, L.L.P., Washington, D.C., for Appellees.   ON BRIEF:  Ann C. Robertson, Wiggins, Childs, Quinn & Pantazis, P.L.L.C., Birmingham, Alabama, for Appellants.  Richard T. Seymour, Washington, D.C.;  S. Micah Salb, Lippman, Semsker & Salb, L.L.C., Bethesda, Maryland;  Michael Foreman, Sarah Crawford, Monica Saxena, Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Washington, D.C.;  Susan E. Huhta, Carolyn P. Weiss, Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, Washington, D.C., for Amici Supporting Appellants.