On April 2, 2015, the EEOC issued a self-congratulatory press release in which it bragged mightily about a $100,000 judgment it just obtained in a discrimination lawsuit. The press release identified the defendant in the lawsuit as an Arizona wine bar by the name of 5th & Wine.  The press release is a model of how not to toot your own horn.

First, 5th & Wine went out of business.  It no longer exists.  In Monty Python parlance, “it’s a dead parrot!”  So, the EEOC’s victory will be little solace to all of the 5th & Wine employees who are now out of a job.  And one is left to wonder whether the bar’s demise (and the consequent unemployment of its employees) had something to do with the EEOC litigation itself, which is always a costly affair.

Second,  after the EEOC describes its brilliant victory, the press release eventually discloses that 5th & Wine ultimately did not even defend itself in the lawsuit; the court entered a judgment in favor of the EEOC by default.  It was a cheap, walkover win.  This is hardly the stuff a federal agency should be crowing about.  To the contrary, the press release confirms the EEOC’s tone-deafness; the EEOC is shown to be ignorant of the widespread consequences of its aggressive litigation style, while displaying a disturbing bent toward self-promotion in what is supposed to be an unbiased agency.