Noah Feldman, Columnist

The Spirit of the Law Counts, When Someone Is Not Quite Fired

Thomas alone dissented in the Supreme Court decision, holding the line in Scalia's battle for literalism.

May 23, 2016 at 7:33 PM UTC

Noah Feldman is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist. A professor of law at Harvard University, he is author, most recently, of “To Be a Jew Today: A New Guide to God, Israel, and the Jewish People."

Timing matters.
Photographer: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

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It's complicated to sue for discriminatory firing when you haven't actually been fired. But it's doable. The lesson from the Supreme Court on Monday is that timing matters.

The justices weighed in on the important question of when the clock starts for plaintiffs who have been “constructively discharged” -- that is, effectively fired because of discriminatory treatment. Seven of the eight justices agreed that if someone quit a job and alleges discrimination was the reason, his claim starts when he quit, not when the discriminatory treatment against him is said to have occurred.