120
O'Connor, J., concurring in judgment
Justice O'Connor, with whom Justice Scalia joins, concurring in the judgment.
The Court today holds that there is no need in this case to defer to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's regulation because the agency's position is the one it "would adopt even if there were no formal rule and [the Court] were interpreting the statute from scratch." Ante, at 114. I do not agree that the EEOC has adopted the most natural interpretation of Title VII's provisions regarding the filing with the EEOC of charges of discrimination. See 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5 (1994 ed.). But, because the statute is at least somewhat ambiguous, I would defer to the agency's interpretation. See Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837, 843-844 (1984); EEOC v. Commercial Office Products Co., 486 U. S. 107, 125 (1988) (O'Connor, J., concurring in part and concurring in judgment) ("[D]eference [to the EEOC] is particularly appropriate on this type of technical issue of agency procedure"). I think the regulation, 29 CFR § 1601.12(b) (1997), should be sustained on this alternative basis.
Title VII requires "charges" of discrimination to "be in writing under oath or affirmation." 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5(b). It also requires "charge[s]" to "be filed within one hundred and eighty [or in some circumstances three hundred] days after the alleged unlawful employment practice occurred." § 2000e-5(e)(1). The most natural reading of these provisions is that the first is intended to be definitional, defining a "charge" as an allegation of discrimination made in writing under oath or affirmation. The second then specifies the time period in which such a verified charge must be filed. That Congress intended the provisions to be read together in this way is suggested by the fact that the two provisions are found in subsections of the same section of the statute. See Davis v. Michigan Dept. of Treasury, 489 U. S. 803, 809 (1989) ("It is a fundamental canon of statutory construction that the words of a statute must be read in their context and
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