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34 Wake Forest L. Rev. 71 (1999)
The Misuse of Summary Judgment in Hostile Environment Cases

handle is hein.journals/wflr34 and id is 81 raw text is: THE MISUSE OF SUMMARY JUDGMENT IN HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT CASES Theresa M. Beiner* The allegations of sexual harassment made by Paula Jones against President Clinton have again refocused the country's attention on sexual harassment law. The Paula Jones case also provides an example of a court using a very potent procedural tool-summary judgment-to circumvent a plaintiffs ability to proceed to trial. In this Article, the author argues that federal courts are misusing summary judgment in hostile environment cases brought under Title VI. Through a review of federal dis- trict and court of appeals decisions granting summary judg- ment, the author shows how the courts are manipulating pro- cedural and substantive standards in an effort to take these cases from the jury. Finally, using a combination of statistical and anecdotal information regarding discrimination claims and the judiciary's attitude toward discrimination claims, the author attempts to account for this phenomenon. A power over a man's subsistence amounts to power over his will.' INTRODUCTION Harassment law, and particularly sexual harassment law, has once again become a vibrant topic for public debate due to the alle- gations against President Clinton in Jones v. Clinton.2 This case fi- * Associate Professor of Law, University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. Special thanks go to UALR Law students Rhonda Wood and Melanie McClure, who provided valuable research assistance for this Article. I would also like to thank Nicana Sherman, formerly of the UALR Law Library, for tracking down my many sources. Finally, I would like to thank my col- league, John M.A. DiPippa, for his helpful comments on earlier drafts of this article. This Article was supported by a research grant from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock School of Law. 1. Commodity Futures Trading Comm'n v. Schor, 478 U.S. 833, 861 (1986) (Brennan, J., dissenting) (quoting THE FEDERALIST NO. 78 (Alexander Hamil- ton)). 2. 990 F. Supp. 657 (E.D. Ark. 1998); see also Anita F. Hill, Lest We For- get-Sexual Harassment Isn't About Sex, Hous. CHRON., Mar. 20, 1998, at 39 (noting that more than 17,000 claims of sexual harassment were filed in 1997); Anita F. Hill, The Paula Problem, NEWSWEEK, June 9, 1997, at 38 (For those of us who care about sexual harassment, the matter of Jones v. Clinton is a great conundrum.); Leslie Kaufman, A Report from the Front: Why It Has Gotten Easier to Sue for Sexual Harassment, NEWSWEEK, Jan. 13, 1997, at 32 (discussing the evolution of sexual harassment suits); Thomas Sowell, Radical Feminism Has Hurt Society, SAN ANTONIO ExPRESS-NEWS, June 11, 1997, at 5B

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