Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., 550 U.S. 618 (2007), is an employment discrimination decision of the Supreme Court of the United States.

Justice Alito held for the five-justice majority that each paycheck received did not constitute a discrete discriminatory act, even if it was affected by a prior decision outside the time limit.

[2] The decision did not prevent plaintiffs from suing under other laws, like the Equal Pay Act, which has a three-year deadline for most sex discrimination claims,[3] or 42 U.S.C.

In rejecting Ledbetter's appeal, the Supreme Court said that "she could have, and should have, sued" when the pay decisions were made, instead of waiting beyond the 180-day statutory charging period.

In 1979 Lilly Ledbetter, the plaintiff, began work at the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company in its Gadsden, Alabama location, a union plant.

In United Airlines v. Evans, Justice Stevens wrote for the Court: "A discriminatory act which is not made the basis for a timely charge ... is merely an unfortunate event in history which has no present legal consequences.

Ledbetter did not claim that Goodyear acted with discriminatory intent in the charging period by issuing the checks, nor by denying her a raise in 1998.

Prior caselaw, the Court held, established that the actual intentional discrimination must occur within the charging period.

[15] Her dissent asserted that the employer had been "[k]nowingly carrying past pay discrimination forward" during the 180-day charging period and therefore could be held liable.

In January 2009, Congress passed and President Obama signed the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act into law.