The next time you hear someone say "Gordon Smith's not that bad, he's kind of moderate, and he has such a great partnership with Ron Wyden," tell them about the Goodyear Tire and Rubber case.
You might have seen it in last week's news: Lilly Ledbetter was a longtime supervisor with Goodyear, who discovered, after many years on the job, that she was making much less money than men with the same job. A jury found that it was discrimination, a violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.
Goodyear responded with an absurd argument: they said that Ledbetter had missed a 180 day deadline within which to sue. She did sue within 180 days of LEARNING of the discrimination, but Goodyear said that didn't matter: she had unknowingly suffered discrimination for years, so she was out of luck.
Last week, the Supreme Court sided with Goodyear. Four Supreme Court justices said Goodyear's argument was outrageous; the deadline should run from the discovery of discrimination - the company shouldn't benefit from hiding its practices. But five Justices, led by Bush appointee Samuel Alito, sided with Goodyear - giving a green light for discrimination to any employer smart enough to hide its illegal practices.
When Samuel Alito was up for confirmation, Ron Wyden looked at his record of right-wing extremism and voted no. Gordon Smith voted yes. Gordon Smith shares responsibility for this decision - and we need to make sure that the working people of Oregon know that.
We need a Senator who will not enable an anti-worker, pro-discrimination agenda. We need a Senator who will be a true partner to Ron Wyden. We need to fire Gordon Smith.
