"If the Train Should Jump the Track ..." : Divergent Interpretations of State and Federal Employment Discrimination Statutes

Alex Long, University of Tennessee College of Law

Abstract

As interpretational issues surrounding federal employment discrimination statutes have become more complex and controversial, there have arisen more opportunities for parallel state anti-discrimination law to jump the track and take alternative courses. Not surprisingly, when dealing with their own parallel state statutes, a number of state appellate courts in recent years have chosen this course of action. Even where state and federal employment discrimination have not yet taken different paths, the potential for such divergent interpretations of state and federal anti-discrimination law has increased in recent years to the point where we may enter an era not unlike that of the new judicial federalism of the 1970s with respect to employment discrimination law. This Article attempts to provide a workable approach for dealing with situations where state courts confront issues of interpretation already addressed by the federal courts in the area of employment discrimination law.