McKennon v. Nashville Banner Publishing Co.: The Supreme Court Puts After-Acquired Evidence in its Rightful Place

Abstract

In what has been touted as the most closely watched labor case on the Supreme Court's 1994 docket, McKennon v. Nashville Banner Company defended against claims of age discrimination in employment when it terminated a 62-year old employee who received excellent performance evaluations throughout her 39-year tenure with the company. The intriguing question in this case though focused on the effect of wrongful conduct by this otherwise-exemplary employee, but only discovered by Nashville Banner after it had already terminated her. (The employee copied some confidential work documents and took them home.) The Court was asked to resolved whether an employee, wrongfully discharged in violation of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act, should be denied legal relief when an employer later discovers wrongful conduct that would have led to discharge had it been discovered earlier.