A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Wednesday that federal judges have authority to make sure the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission is trying hard enough to settle charges of job discrimination before filing lawsuits against employers.
The justices said that lower courts can review whether government lawyers were being reasonable during settlement negotiations with companies accused of bias.
Employers have been closely watching the case. Many companies have complained that the EEOC has been overly aggressive in recent years, rushing to file costly lawsuits without trying to resolve disputes informally.
The EEOC has a legal duty to try settling cases first, but the question was how much a court could peer into those negotiations to make sure the EEOC was acting in good faith.
The Obama administration argued that courts should have no role in probing confidential settlement talks. But business groups called for expansive review.
