18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies · Minor
Have EEOC disclaim power to enter consent decrees
Not started
Printed page 587 18. Department of Labor and Related Agencies
“Disclaim power to enter into consent decrees. EEOC should disclaim power to enter into consent decrees that require employer actions that it could not require under the laws it enforces.”
What has happened
- Not started
The EEOC has issued no statement disclaiming the power to enter consent decrees requiring more than the statutes it enforces would require. It continues to resolve litigation by consent decree; its enforcement in the window has been settled by agreement rather than by any disclaimer of settlement authority.
No action found yet. This entry is the starting point, not a finding.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- Negative search: chapter log, Cluster negative search — EEOC internal-practice asks (#1609, #1610, #1611, #1612).
- The one adjacent instrument found is Executive Order 14281 section 6(c), which told all agencies to evaluate “existing consent judgments and permanent injunctions that rely on theories of disparate-impact liability” and take appropriate action. That is a review of a class of existing decrees on one legal theory, not a disclaimer of the power to enter them, so under §3b’s “progress is measured on this ask” rule it carries no Status event here. It is the same order that carries #1596 and #1597.
- The parallel disclaimer at the NLRB has happened and is worth recording as a contrast: General Counsel memorandum GC 26-03 (2026-02-27) tells Regions that enhanced remedies “should not be routinely included in settlement agreements or complaints” and that pending requests for them are being rescinded. That is the NLRB, not the EEOC, and belongs to no item in this batch.
- Action
- restrict
- Object
- EEOC consent decree authority
- ID
- 1611