DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal Volume 3 Issue 3 Spring 2005 Article 6 Lerohl v. Friends of Minnesota Sinfonia: An Out of Tune Definition of "Employee" Keeps Freelance Musicians from Being Covered by Title VII Jeff Clement Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/bclj Recommended Citation Jeff Clement, Lerohl v. Friends of Minnesota Sinfonia: An Out of Tune Definition of "Employee" Keeps Freelance Musicians from Being Covered by Title VII, 3 DePaul Bus. & Com. L.J. 489 (2005) Available at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/bclj/vol3/iss3/6 This Comment is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Law at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in DePaul Business and Commercial Law Journal by an authorized editor of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Lerohl v. Friends of Minnesota Sinfonia: An Out of Tune Definition of "Employee" Keeps Freelance Musicians from Being Covered by Title VII Jeff Clement1 I. INTRODUCTION Should individuals classified as employees have standing to sue while individuals classified as independent contractors have no stand- ing to sue under remedial statutes like Title VII? The Supreme Court has clearly said "yes."' 2 Despite the broad legislative intent of Title VII, courts have decided that Title VII and other federal employment 3 discrimination laws do not protect independent contractors. There- fore, courts have grappled with determining who is an employee, cov- ered under federal discrimination statutes, and who is an independent contractor, not covered under federal discrimination statutes. The exclusion of an entire category of workers from statutes such as Title VII leaves many workers, who have been discriminated against, with no remedy under Title VII.4 An overly narrow definition of em- ployee can have the same effect.