Leading feminist lawyer talks lookback laws, gender discrimination, building a legal movement

Civil litigation will play an important role in combatting sex discrimination. Dr. Ann Olivarius addresses certain strategies for advancing women’s rights and the criticisms they face.

Legal strategies shift when different presidential administrations come into power. In the realm of sexual discrimination and harassment lawsuits, one prominent lawyer is calling for state courts to assume some of the responsibility.

Dr. Ann Olivarius, a women’s rights attorney, has been involved with sex discrimination lawsuits her whole life. I spoke with her this week about Donald Trump’s handling of Title IX, which prohibits sex-based discrimination in education and activities that receive federal funding. We also talked about her support for lookback laws when it comes to suing over sexual harassment and assault claims.

Olivarius said that Trump's actions regarding the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission have been illegal. The agency investigates complaints of job discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex (including pregnancy, gender identity, and sexual orientation), national origin, disability, age (40 or older), or genetic information. Trump has sought to pressure its leader to stamp out Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives from all of the federal bureaucracy and anyone receiving federal funding.

“The best thing is to go on a state-by-state basis and fight the battle,” Olivarius said. “Because there are still legal laws to stop discrimination. And I think you should bring the cases where you can possibly bring them.”

We spoke about expanding the statute of limitations for sexual assault survivors. Statutes that do that are called lookback laws.

While the feminist movement has embraced this in the wake of #MeToo, some legal scholars have criticized lookback laws for discarding some of the rights of the criminally accused. Statutes of limitations are put in place because evidence can deteriorate over time, and memory can fade or get foggy. As any historian or researcher knows, it’s also harder to gather evidence the more time passes. Witnesses die or disappear, and documents and complaints are destroyed.

However, with sexual assault, many survivors are reluctant to come forward at first because of the stigma over the abuse they suffered. While some lawyers have said that there have been frivolous lawsuits filed because of these lookback laws, Olivarius has said that she has never had someone who falsely claimed sexual assault or abuse in a civil lawsuit she was involved in.

“Every year, hundreds of people are coming, calling us, asking for questions and help,” Olivarius said. “And there are times when I say we can't help you because we can't prove our case, and so we don't bring those cases.

“But I think there are so few baseless cases. We've never had one.”

Despite the power civil litigation can give victims, it will not solve the crisis the Trump administration has put the country in.

“We can't entirely sue ourselves out of this crisis,” Olivarius said. “We'll have to organize politically in the broadest coalitions possible. But we should make no mistake that while women are the biggest group targeted, we're not the only ones. Immigrants, LGBTQ, folks with disability, and the elderly are targeted too. And we're going to have to organize things together.”