Supreme Court narrows vicarious liability for sexual harassment

In a  5-4 opinion, Vance v. Ball State University,  the Supreme court clarified and narrowed employer liability for sexual harassment in the workplace. The Court reduced the class of individuals whose conduct can create vicarious liability for the employer to “supervisors”  empowered by the employer to take tangible employment actions against the victim. All other supervisors are co-worker-employees whose conduct can only create liability by proving the employer was negligent, including it knew or should have known the harassment occurred, but failed to act to prevent or promptly remediate it. This is substantially narrower liability than under the National Labor Relations Act, which expressly defines "supervisors" in broad terms. This also presents an opportunity for employers to create another layer of insulation against unexpected allegations of harassment.