Cite as: 534 U. S. 279 (2002)
Thomas, J., dissenting
tlement agreement precludes the EEOC from recovering victim-specific relief for an employee). In addition, an employee who fails to mitigate his damages limits his ability to obtain relief, whether he files his own lawsuit or the EEOC files an action on his behalf. See Ford Motor Co. v. EEOC, 458 U. S. 219, 231-232 (1982). An employee's unilateral attempt to pursue his own discrimination claim may also limit the EEOC's ability to obtain victim-specific relief for that employee. If a court rejects the merits of a claim in a private lawsuit brought by an employee, for example, res judicata bars the EEOC from recovering victim-specific relief on behalf of that employee in a later action. See, e. g., EEOC v. Harris Chernin, Inc., 10 F. 3d 1286, 1291 (CA7 1993). In all of the aforementioned situations, the same general principle applies: To the extent that the EEOC is seeking victim-specific relief in court for a particular employee, it is able to obtain no more relief for that employee than the employee could recover for himself by bringing his own lawsuit. The EEOC, therefore, should not be able to obtain victim-specific relief for Baker in court through its own lawsuit here when Baker waived his right to seek relief for himself in a judicial forum by signing an arbitration agreement.
The Court concludes that the EEOC's claim is not "merely derivative" of an employee's claim and argues that "[w]e have recognized several situations in which the EEOC does not stand in the employee's shoes." Ante, at 297. The Court's opinion, however, attacks a straw man because this case does not turn on whether the EEOC's "claim" is wholly derivative of an employee's "claim." Like the Court of Appeals below, I do not question the EEOC's ability to seek declaratory and broad-based injunctive relief in a case where a particular employee, such as Baker, would not be able to pursue such relief in court. Rather, the dispute here turns on whether the EEOC's ability to obtain victim-specific relief is dependent upon the victim's ability to obtain such relief for himself.
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