Cite as: 527 U. S. 212 (1999)
Opinion of the Court
For these reasons, we conclude that the EEOC possesses the legal authority to enforce § 717 through an award of compensatory damages.
III
Respondent asks us to affirm on alternative grounds the Seventh Circuit's judgment permitting his case to proceed in the District Court. The Seventh Circuit considered whether Gibson had "asked the EEOC for compensatory damages." 137 F. 3d, at 994. It added that if "he did, then the government's failure-to-exhaust argument obviously is a non-starter." Ibid. But the Court of Appeals concluded that Gibson did not "put the EEOC on notice that he was seeking compensatory damages." Ibid. Respondent claims that he can proceed in District Court because he did satisfy the law's exhaustion requirements, even if the EEOC has the legal power to award compensatory damages and even if he did not give notice to the EEOC that he sought compensatory damages. He argues that is so because (1) the requirement of notice for exhaustion purposes is unusually weak in respect to compensatory damages, (2) he did request a "monetary cash award," and (3) special circumstances estop the Government from asserting a "no exhaustion" claim in this case.
These matters fall outside the scope of the question presented in the Government's petition for certiorari. See Roberts v. Galen of Va., Inc., 525 U. S. 249, 253-254 (1999) (per curiam). We remand the case so that the Court of Appeals can determine whether these questions have been properly raised and, if so, decide them.
* * *
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.
It is so ordered.
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