The Hidden Costs of Pleading Plausibility: Examining the Impact of Twombly and Iqbal on Employment Discrimination Complaints and the Eeoc’s Litigation and Mediation Efforts

“The effect of the Court’s actions will no doubt be to deny many plaintiffs with meritorious claims access to the federal courts and, with it, any legal redress for their injuries. . . . I think that is an especially unwelcome development at a time when, with the litigating resources of our executive-branch and administrative agencies stretched thin, the enforcement of federal antitrust, consumer protection, civil rights and other laws that benefit the public will fall increasingly to private litigants.” Senator Arlen Specter, July 22, 2009, commenting on the practical impact that Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly and Ashcroft v. Iqbal will have on the federal judicial process.1