Fired Baltimore official’s discrimination lawsuit can proceed, despite EEOC snafu

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Despite being filed late, a former Baltimore equity official’s discrimination lawsuit against the city can proceed because the delay was caused by a bureaucratic hiccup by federal authorities, a federal magistrate ruled.

In his Friday ruling, Magistrate Judge J. Mark Coulson wrote that he was “unpersuaded” by the city’s arguments that the case should be dismissed as untimely despite the blunder between the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the Department of Justice. It was an early victory for Linda L. Batts, the former director of equity and environmental justice at the city’s Department of Public Works, who alleges that Mayor Brandon Scott‘s administration fired her after she pressed officials to address racially hostile working conditions at the city agency.

Batts had filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC in February 2022, less than a year after her firing. Although the Justice Department had sent a letter to Batts’ old email address last May granting her the right to file a complaint in federal court, the EEOC agent assigned to her case repeatedly told her that he had not heard from federal attorneys about issuing a right-to-sue letter. The agent eventually discovered it after Batts inquired again in December.

“This is the first I am hearing of this or seeing it,” the agent said last December, adding that he didn’t know why he wasn’t notified, according to an email chain filed in court. He said he had inquired with the Justice Department months before and “did not hear anything back.”

Batts, who is represented in court by Baltimore-based attorney Thiru Vignarajah, filed her lawsuit in February, alleging retaliatory firing and race, sex and age discrimination. Spokespeople for Scott’s office and the EEOC did not immediately return requests for comment Monday.

Lawsuits under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 must generally be filed within 90 days of receipt of a “right-to-sue” notice issued after federal authorities close their investigation. In his Friday decision, Coulson noted that Batts’ complaint “alleges in great detail the history of [her] communication with the EEOC in pursuit of her right to sue letter.” He found that Batts “relied on [the EEOC’s] representations that no right to sue letter had yet been issued,” and once she became aware of it, she sought counsel to file her complaint.

Resignations and staffing cuts under Donald Trump‘s second presidency have left the EEOC with its lowest personnel levels in decades, leading to case management backlogs at the agency, which investigates alleged violations of workplace civil rights laws. In addition to the EEOC’s staffing being reduced by over 20% from 2024, according to federal data, the agency’s efforts were also hamstrung due to Trump firing two members of its governing body after he reassumed office. With the commission’s quorum now reestablished, its new chair has recast the agency to bring in cases that match Trump’s agenda.

Batts, who served in the equity post from 2019 to her 2021 firing, alleged in her complaint that she was abruptly terminated because she documented and highlighted “evidence of a wide range of unlawful activity and civil rights violations” at the department. She alleged that in the months before her firing, she had pressed then-acting DPW Director Matthew Garbark to address “racially hostile conditions and conflicts of interest that obstructed civil rights enforcement” and reported to the department’s internal auditor that her efforts to enforce civil rights laws were being obstructed due to bias in human resources investigations.

In his Friday decision, Coulson also granted the city’s motion to dismiss counts against the public works agency itself, leaving the city as the sole defendant.