Supreme Court Agrees to Consider Controversial Conciliation Case

In December 2013, in EEOC v. Mach Mining, LLC, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit became the first federal circuit to foreclose an employer’s ability to use the implied affirmative defense that the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) failed to conciliate prior to bringing suit. The Seventh Circuit held that, based on the conciliation language in Title VII and Seventh Circuit precedent, the EEOC’s approach to conciliation during the administrative charge process is not judicially reviewable and not an affirmative defense to be used against the agency. The Seventh Circuit’s holding is contrary to every other circuit that has evaluated this issue.