PFAW Launches Ledbetter Web Video and Petition at CorrectTheCourt.com

Senator Edward Kennedy and a bipartisan group of fourteen of his colleagues have introduced the Fair Pay Restoration Act to vastly reduce the damage done by the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire. The sharply divided, 5-4 ruling left many workers who face persistent pay discrimination based on sex, race, religion or nationality with no legal recourse.

“Congress has a rare opportunity to correct a terrible decision by the Supreme Court,” said Ralph G. Neas, President of People For the American Way. “The Roberts Court made it more difficult for Americans to recover wages unfairly denied them and much easier for employers to engage in pay discrimination with impunity. Congress must act now to undo the Court’s unjust assault on the individual rights of American workers and the laws passed by Congress to protect them.”

People For the American Way has launched a petition and powerful new web video featuring Lilly Ledbetter to support the Fair Pay Restoration Act and companion legislation in the House of Representatives. Ledbetter suffered pay discrimination on the basis of her gender throughout much of her nearly twenty years as a supervisor at a Goodyear Tire factory in Gadsden, Alabama. She proved her case before a federal jury and was awarded back pay and punitive damages, but the company pursued the case, and was eventually handed a victory by the increasingly right-wing Roberts Court.

“We must do everything possible to prevent what happened to Lilly Ledbetter from happening again,” said Neas. “Congress has the authority and the obligation to ensure that justice is not denied to those Americans who face discrimination in the workplace.”

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The Ledbetter web video, four supplementary videos, and the petition are available at www.CorrectTheCourt.com. The videos can be viewed on Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/user/PFAWdotorg. A transcript of the video is available upon request.