What’s at Stake
Whether a former SpaceX employee can invoke the Ending Forced Arbitration in Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment Act (EFASASHA) and keep her claims of discrimination and sexual harassment in court – or whether SpaceX and her supervisor can force those claims to be arbitrated.
Summary
Jenna Shumway, a former program security manager at SpaceX, sued SpaceX and Daniel Collins in court after she was fired for reporting sexual harassment and discrimination. She alleges that she was paid less than her male coworkers and was denied a promotion to a director position that ultimately went to Mr. Collins, and that, after Mr. Collins became her supervisor, he made inappropriate sex-based comments to her and other women and singled out women for hostile treatment. When she reported him, he stripped her of job responsibilities and lied about her to U.S. government clients. She and other women kept reporting his behavior, and ultimately she was fired soon after Human Resources investigated one of their complaints.
Rather than respond to Ms. Shumway’s court complaint on the merits, the defendants tried to compel her claims into arbitration. The district court denied that motion, holding that EFASASHA allowed her to bring her claims in court because her case includes sexual harassment claims. SpaceX appealed, and Public Justice joined the case to represent Ms. Shumway on appeal.
Core Legal Questions
The appeal raises several issues about the application of EFASASHA that have not yet been decided by the Ninth Circuit, and will affect whether survivors of sexual harassment and sexual assault can have their day in court. These issues include: whether EFASASHA applies only if the allegations of sexual harassment in the complaint can survive a motion to dismiss, whether retaliation for reporting sexual harassment is a covered “sexual harassment dispute” under EFASASHA, and whether only harassment “of a sexual nature,” rather than all sex-based harassment, is covered by EFASASHA.