Stalking Case Could Expand Harassment Protections
Run Date: 01/08/09
By Rich Daly
WeNews correspondent
A case linking gender violence and workplace stalking is under Supreme Court review and could determine if stalking by a non-employee qualifies as sexual harassment. Advocates say the case also highlights a lack of protection for victims.
WASHINGTON (WOMENSENEWS)--The Supreme Court is slated to give a final review Friday in a case that probes the legal boundaries between stalking and sexual harassment.
Dawn V. Martin v. Howard University, et al., has serious implications for workplace safety nationwide, according to legal advocates, and spotlights the lack of any federal protections for victims of stalking who face retaliation from their employers when they complain about it.
The specific issue raised by the case is whether someone can make a sexual harassment claim against the employer under federal-worker protections if the harasser is not an employee. Martin, an attorney, brought the case after she was stalked by a homeless man while she was working as a law professor at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. Her teaching contract was subsequently not renewed.
The case arises during National Stalking Awareness Month, when advocacy groups will be publicizing data from the Washington-based Stalking Resource Center finding that 1 in 12 women and 1 in 45 men will be stalked during their lifetime. Eighty-seven percent of all stalkers are men, and among stalking victims on campuses, 80 percent know the perpetrator.
