[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Page 4888]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                     JUSTICE FOR JAMIE LEIGH JONES

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, yesterday, I was pleased to learn that a 
brave young woman, Ms. Jamie Leigh Jones, will finally have her day in 
court. Ms. Jones testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee last 
year about how the Supreme Court's interpretation of the Federal 
Arbitration Act has hampered American employees from having their civil 
rights protected. Ms. Jones was a compelling witness; her case deserves 
the attention of every Senator.
  When she was just 20 years old and was working overseas for the 
military contractor, KBR, Ms. Jones was sexually assaulted by her 
coworkers. She filed suit in Federal court alleging sexual harassment, 
hostile work environment claims under title VII of the Civil Rights Act 
of 1964, and several state law tort claims including assault and 
battery. Both KBR and its former parent company, Halliburton, argued 
that her claims were subject to forced arbitration under a clause that 
Ms. Jones was required to sign as a condition of her employment. The 
district court agreed with the company in part. It dismissed her 
Federal civil rights claims because it found that they were subject to 
forced arbitration under her contract. But the court held that Ms. 
Jones could proceed to trial on some of her tort claims, albeit only 
after her civil rights claims had been decided in arbitration. 
Halliburton and KBR appealed to the Fifth Circuit court of appeals, 
arguing that under her employment contract and the Federal Arbitration 
Act, all of Ms. Jones's claims were subject to forced arbitration, 
including her assault and battery claims arising out of her alleged 
rape. The Fifth Circuit affirmed the district court's decision, and 
once again the companies appealed.
  In the interim, Congress enacted an amendment to the Department of 
Defense Appropriations Act of 2010, Public Law 111-118. That amendment 
was sponsored by Senator Franken and supported by Senators from both 
parties. It prohibited the U.S. Government from entering into contracts 
with and paying Federal tax dollars to corporations who force their 
employees to arbitrate their civil rights or tort claims related to 
sexual assault and harassment or take any action to enforce such forced 
arbitration clauses. I am pleased that the companies cited this law, 
which I was happy to support, as a reason for dropping their appeal.
  As we examined in our October hearing, however, millions of hard 
working Americans like Ms. Jones are being denied their civil and 
constitutional rights and being forced into arbitration merely by 
accepting a job offer that contains an arbitration clause as a 
condition of employment. There is no rule of law in arbitration. There 
are no juries or independent judges in the arbitration industry. There 
is no transparency or accountability. And unfortunately, there is often 
no justice.
  After more than 5 years of hard won challenges, Ms. Jones will 
finally be able to seek justice in a courtroom. But this small victory 
should not have been such a struggle. I will continue to work to ensure 
that Americans have a meaningful choice about whether or not to enter a 
predispute arbitration agreement--no American should be forced to 
forfeit their access to the courts in order to get a job or a product 
or a service. Arbitration clauses like the one in Ms. Jones's contract 
strip Americans of the civil rights protections many of us in Congress 
have fought for so long to enshrine in our law.
  Legislation such as Senator Feingold's Arbitration Fairness Act, S. 
931, which would make mandatory predispute arbitration clauses in 
employment, consumer, franchise, or civil rights disputes 
unenforceable, would correct these practices and restore fairness to 
the marketplace for jobs and other goods and services. Jamie Leigh 
Jones's struggle also highlights the importance of the Civilian 
Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act of 2010, S. 2979, which I recently 
introduced. My legislation would fix outdated criminal laws by 
establishing that all U.S. government employees and contractors who 
commit crimes while working abroad can be charged and tried in the 
United States under American law. We must continue to protect victims 
like Ms. Jones and others who have their civil rights violated. I look 
forward to the day when justice is the norm, rather than the exception, 
in all cases like this.

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