Ledbetter’s counsel said that “The opinion matters much more for folks bringing race discrimination claims” than sex discrimination claims, since “They have no alternative” to the Civil Rights Act, like the Equal Pay Act.

But that’s not usually true. Racial discrimination plaintiffs can sue not only under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which has a 180-day statute of limitations, but also under 42 U.S.C. 1981, which has a four year statute of limitations.

And Ledbetter only involves Title VII.

So pay discrimination cases can continue to be brought under the Equal Pay Act (for sex discrimination) and 42 U.S.C. 1981 (for race discrimination) even if they are time-barred under Title VII).

(It’s true that Section 1981 only covers intentional racial discrimination, not “disparate impact,” but most pay discrimination cases allege intentional discrimination, and the Supreme Court has really relaxed the application of the statute of limitations in Title VII class actions, which are the vehicle for many disparate impact cases. Moreover, the Ledbetter decision involved an intentional discrimination claim).

I’m also baffled by Linda Greenhouse’s erroneous claim in the New York Times that Justice O’Connor’s replacement with Justice Alito changed the outcome of the case.

As a commenter above notes, Justice O’Connor rigorously enforced the statute of limitations, and was “conservative” on that issue. It’s Justice Thomas who’s the swing justice on how to enforce Title VII’s statute of limitations; he’s more liberal on the subject than Justice O’Connor, which is a perspective he perhaps acquired while he was head of the EEOC, which has sought to limit the application of Title VII’s statute of limitations.

I think Ledbetter was correctly decided, based on the statute’s plain text, among other reasons.

Of course, it also would have been nice had Linda Greenhouse provided some support for her assertion that had Justice O’Connor still been on the Court, she “would almost certainly have voted the other way” in Ledbetter. Maybe so, but there’s nothing in the article to back this claim up.