WHO IS LILLY LEDBETTER AND WHAT DOES SHE HAVE TO DO WITH OUR LIVES?

Back at the very end of May this Supreme Court, specially crafted by an ascendant Republican Party to serve, more than anything else, the exclusive interests of the rich and powerful, sent a very ominous message about what to expect as their session ground to a halt. They sent down a narrowly partisan 5-4 ruling-- the first of many that would follow in the next couple of weeks-- that protects the interests of the haves from the aspirations of ordinary Americans who, basically, have nothing but a now further shaken faith in fairness and Justice.

As Robert Barnes explained the ruling in the following day's Washington Post, Bush's Court voided the right of a worker to collect damages regardless of the guilt of her employers.

The court ruled 5-4 that Lilly Ledbetter, a supervisor at a tire plant in Gadsden, Ala., did not file her lawsuit against Goodyear Tire and Rubber Co. in the timely manner specified by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

A jury had originally awarded her more than $3.5 million because it found it "more likely than not" that sex discrimination during her 19-year career led to her being paid substantially less than her male counterparts.

An appeals court reversed, saying the law requires the suit be filed within 180 days "after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred," and Ledbetter couldn't prove discrimination within that time period. She had argued that she was discriminated against throughout her career and each paycheck that was less because of discrimination was a new violation.

The conservative majority of the court disagreed, and upheld the appeals court.

I'd like to ask you to meet Lilly-- via this video-- and tell me if she doesn't feel like family. I don't see how it's possible for any woman, or any man with a wife, sister, daughter, mother, aunt, female friend, to not feel infuriated by how Lilly was treated, first by a huge multinational corporation and then by the 5 Horsemen of the Judicial Apocalypse: Scalia, Thomas, Alito, Roberts, and Kennedy.



Next time you hear a rubber stamp Republican senator like Susan Collins, Norm Coleman, John Sununu, Gordon Smith, John Cornyn, Mitch McConnell, Lamar Alexander, Pete Domenici, Ted Stevens or James Inhofe tell you what an independent voice they are, ask them why they voted for every single judicial nominee, no matter how extreme, no matter how narrowly partisan, that the Bush Regime shoved out.