'A Bureaucracy Out Of Control': Paul Gosar Calls Out Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

2 months ago

At a House Oversight Committee hearing last week, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) spoke about an EEOC ruling.

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00:00The U.S. Equal Opportunity Employment Commission has decided on April 29, 2024, that its new

00:14sexual harassment guidance that most businesses with 15 or more employees must allow men in

00:19women's bathrooms or be in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

00:24Attorney General Burkitt, it's very good to see you again.

00:29What punishment would be meted out to a business that does not allow men into women's bathrooms?

00:35Under that guidance?

00:36Yes.

00:37Well, it could range from, first of all, there's the embarrassment factor of going through

00:44the process.

00:45There's the financial cost of going through a process if the EEOC was to bring charges.

00:51And depending on the circumstances, there could be fines.

00:56Now, would the same punishment apply to a business if a business refused to force its

01:00employees to use pronouns they're not comfortable with?

01:04Well, what we've said, and the opinion in Indiana is that there's no federal or state

01:09law that has this requirement.

01:12So what your question goes to is how far these unelected bureaucrats are going to go to try

01:18to use the law and the wedge they're putting into it and the liberties they're taking with

01:22it to inflict harm and confusion on the business community.

01:29You know, single sex spaces in businesses with employees, 15 or more, exist if the sexual

01:37harassment guidance stays in place.

01:39Well, they exist.

01:44I'm having trouble following that one, but if so, if you could

01:49It'd be very hard, wouldn't it, to be in compliance?

01:51Yeah, right.

01:52Okay.

01:53Mr. Berry, this EEO1 data, can you give me a little bit more information on how this

02:02data could be utilized and is actually in violation, address our concerns it's in violation

02:09of the law?

02:12So the EEO1 collection requires employers to classify their employees on the basis of

02:17race, put people in these identity politics categories.

02:21The issue here is that unless there is particularized evidence of suspicion of discrimination, the

02:27EEO1 aggravates, raises unnecessarily the salience of race.

02:34And this is in direct contravention to what the first Justice Harlan said.

02:38In Plessy v. Ferguson, his dissent vindicated in Brown v. Board of Education, Justice Harlan

02:44said, quote, we should not permit any public authority to know the race of, unquote, any

02:52American citizen.

02:54That colorblindness is exactly what our Constitution requires, and that is indeed the value we

02:59ought to be upholding.

03:00Isn't that the whole premise of the lady justice?

03:04She's blindfolded, she holds a set of scales and a sword.

03:07Isn't that the same kind of principle?

03:09Exactly.

03:10No respecter of persons.

03:11Well, you know, pretty interesting.

03:14Now, the Supreme Court ruled in Bostock v. Clayton County that a male employee cannot

03:21be fired just because he thinks he is a woman.

03:24That is an egregious decision on his face.

03:26However, you mentioned in your testimony, Ms. Stepman, that the court did not, and this

03:31is the words of the court, quote, purport to address bathrooms, locker rooms, or anything

03:37else of that kind, end of quote.

03:39Is the EOC directly violating the Supreme Court?

03:43It's going much further than Bostock does, and it is violating the plain text meaning

03:48of Title VII.

03:49And so really, it's a promotion by a bureaucracy out of control.

03:55Exactly so.

03:56This didn't even go through the APA rulemaking process.

03:59So when Kim Gardner refused to grant marriage licenses to gay couples, she was jailed.

04:03Earlier this year, she was just ordered to pay a gay couple that she would not pretend

04:08to marry for $260,000.

04:12Why am I not holding my breath that the EOC officials will be held in the same account

04:16as Kim Gardner?

04:17I'm sorry.

04:18I'm partially deaf, so it's difficult for me to understand.

04:23I'm sorry.

04:24Let's try it one more time.

04:26When Kim Gardner refused to grant marriage licenses to a gay couple, she was jailed.

04:34Earlier this year, she was just ordered to pay a gay couple.

04:37She would not pretend to marry for $260,000.

04:42Why am I not holding my breath that the EOC officials will be held in the same account

04:46as Ms. Gardner?

04:47Yeah.

04:48I'm not holding my breath either, but they are equally beyond their mandate.

04:53They're operating as unelected officials, remember.

04:57They don't have to stand before the American people.

04:59Again, this body, if it wanted to, could add gender identity to Title VII.

05:04It declined to do so, and now bureaucrats who are unelected are taking that power for

05:09themselves.

'A Bureaucracy Out Of Control': Paul Gosar Calls Out Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

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