Put Up or Shut Up: EEOC Ordered To Reveal Immigration Status or Abandon Claims

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On May 7, 2012, Judge Lonny R. Suko of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Washington told the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) that it had to either reveal the immigration status of women it is representing in a harassment lawsuit or abandon recovery of monetary damages for the claimants who will not disclose their status. The EEOC had objected on Fifth Amendment grounds, and sought a protective order. EEOC v. Evans Fruit Co., Inc., Case No. CV-10-3033 LRS (E.D. Wash.). The court noted that even if an assertion of Fifth Amendment privileges is proper, “there are consequences.” The court said “it should have been apparent to the EEOC that some of the claimants now had a choice to make: either continue to be part of the litigation and provide answers in discovery subject to the protective order, or decline to…be part of the litigation.”