NO LONGER A PAPER TIGER: THE EEOC AND ITS STATUTORY DUTY TO CONCILIATE.

Congress created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to effectuate the ends of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employers from discriminating on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. To effectuate those ends, Congress vested the EEOC with authority to not only receive, investigate, and conciliate charges of employment discrimination, but also to enforce Title VII against private employers who discriminate by initiating suit against them. After the EEOC receives a charge of employment discrimination, it must, after completing an investigation, attempt to conciliate the charge with a private employer accused of discrimination before initiating suit. The EEOC's "duty to conciliate is at the heart of Title VII," so a critical question arises when the EEOC appears to violate its duty by, for instance, making egregious demands of an employer: what is the proper standard for reviewing whether the agency has satisfied its statutory duty to conciliate? The federal circuit courts of appeals are split between two standards of review-the deferential and the stringent standards of review. This Comment argues that the deferential standard of review is inadequate to protect private employers from the EEOC's potential abuse of its statutory duty. Rather, the stringent standard is the proper standard, and it is consistent with the text, purpose, legislative history, and jurisprudence of Title VII. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]