Library of Congress et al. v. Shaw (478 U.S. 310)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided July 1, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 478 U.S. 310 · 106 S. Ct. 2957
- Decided
- July 1, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 6–3
- Majority author
- Justice Blackmun
- Issue area
- Attorneys
- Disposition
- Reversed and remanded
- Outcome
- Petitioning party won
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Justice Blackmun delivered the opinion of the Court. The no-interest rule is to the effect that interest cannot be recovered in a suit against the Government in the absence of an express waiver of sovereign immunity from an award of interest. In this case, attorney’s fees as well as interest on those fees were awarded to a plaintiff who prevailed against petitioner Library of Congress in a suit brought under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, as amended, 42 U. S. C. §2000e et seq. We therefore must decide whether Congress, in enacting Title VII, expressly waived the Government’s immunity from interest. H Respondent Tommy Shaw is an employee of the Library of Congress. He is black. During 1976 and 1977, he filed three complaints with the Library’s Equal Employment Office alleging job-related racial discrimination. Following an investigation, Library officials rejected his complaints. Thereafter, respondent’s counsel pursued administrative relief and settlement negotiations, and eventually reached a settlement with the Library. The latter agreed to promote Shaw retroactively with backpay provided that the Comptroller General first determined that the Library had authority to do so in the absence of a specific finding of racial discrimination. The Comptroller General ruled that the Library, under the Back Pay Act, 5 U. S. C. §§5595, 5596, lacked that power;…
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