EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION v. ARABIAN AMERICAN OIL CO. ET AL.
No. 89-1838
Supreme Court of the United States
March 26, 1991
499 U.S. 244
*Tоgether with No. 89-1845, Boureslan v. Arabian American Oil Co., et al., also on certiorari to the same court.
Paul L. Friedman argued the cause for respondents in both cases. With him on the brief were Thomas J. O‘Sullivan, Anne D. Smith, John D. Roady, V. Scott Kneese, and Gregory B. Richards.†
CHIEF JUSTICE REHNQUIST delivered the opinion of the Court.
These cases present the issue whether Title VII applies extraterritorially to regulate the employment practices of United States employers who employ United States citizens abroad. The United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth
Petitioner Boureslan is a naturalized United States citizen who was born in Lebanon. The respondents are two Delaware corporations, Arabian American Oil Company (Aramco), and its subsidiary, Aramco Service Company (ASC). Aramco‘s principal place of business is Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and it is licensed to do business in Texas. ASC‘s principal place of business is Houston, Texas.
In 1979, Boureslan was hired by ASC as a cost engineer in Houston. A year later he was transferred, at his request, to work for Aramco in Saudi Arabia. Boureslan remained with Aramco in Saudi Arabia until he was discharged in 1984. After filing a charge of discrimination with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC or Commission), he instituted this suit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas against Aramco and ASC. He sought relief under both state law and Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 78 Stat. 253, as amended,
Respondents filed a motion for summary judgment on the ground that the District Court lacked subject-matter jurisdiction over Boureslan‘s claim because the protections of Title VII do not extend to United States citizens employed abroad by American employers. The District Court agreed and dismissed Boureslan‘s Title VII claim; it also dismissed his state-law claims for lack of pendеnt jurisdiction and entered final judgment in favor of respondents. A panel for the Fifth Circuit affirmed. After vacating the panel‘s decision and rehearing the case en banc, the court affirmed the District Court‘s dismissal of Boureslan‘s complaint. Both Boureslan and the EEOC petitioned for certiorari. We granted both petitions for certiorari to resolve this important issue of statutory interpretation. 498 U. S. 808 (1990).
It is a longstanding principle of American law “that legislation of Congress, unless a contrary intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” Foley Bros., 336 U. S., at 285. This “canon of construction . . . is a valid approach whereby unexpressed congressional intent may be ascertained.” Ibid. It serves to protect against unintended clashes bеtween our laws and those of other nations which could result in international discord. See McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras, 372 U. S. 10, 20-22 (1963).
In applying this rule of construction, we look to see whether “language in the [relevant Act] gives any indication of a congressional purpose to extend its coverage beyond places over which the United States has sovereignty or has some measure of legislative control.” Foley Bros., supra, at 285. We assume that Congress legislates against the backdrop of the presumption against extraterritoriality. Therefore, unless there is “the affirmative intention of the Congress clearly expressed,” Benz, supra, at 147, we must presume it “is primarily concerned with domestic conditions.” Foley Bros., supra, at 285.
Boureslan and the EEOC contend that the language of Title VII evinces a clearly expressed intent on behalf of Congress to legislate extraterritorially. They rely principally on two provisions of the statute. First, petitioners argue that the statute‘s definitions of the jurisdictional terms “em-
Title VII prohibits various discriminatory employment practices based on an individual‘s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. See
Petitioners argue that by its plain language, Title VII‘s “broad jurisdictional language” reveals Congress’ intent to extend the statute‘s protections to employment discrimination anywhere in the world by a United States employer who affects trade “between a State and any place outside thereof.” More precisely, they assert that since Title VII
Respondents offer several alternative explanations for the statute‘s expansive language. They contend that the “or between a State and any place outside thereof” clause “provide[s] the jurisdictional nexus required to regulate commerce that is not wholly within a single state, presumably as it affects both interstate and foreign commerce” but not to “regulate conduct exclusively within a foreign country.” Brief for Respondents 21, n. 14. They also argue that since the definitions of the terms “employer,” “commerce,” and “industry affecting commerce” make no mention of “commerce with foreign nations,” Congress cannot be said to have intended that the statute apply overseas. In support of this argument, respondents point to Title II of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, governing public accommodation, which specifically defines commerce as it applies to foreign nations. Finally, respondents argue that while language present in the first bill considered by the House of Representatives contained the terms “foreign commerce” and “foreign nations,” those terms were deleted by the Senate before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. They conclude that these deletions “[are] inconsistent with the notion of a clearly expressed congressional intent to apply Title VII extraterritorially.” Id., at 7.
We need not choose between these competing interpretations as we would be required to do in the absence of the presumption against extraterritorial applicatiоn discussed above. Each is plausible, but no more persuasive than that. The language relied upon by petitioners ---and it is they who must make the affirmative showing-is ambiguous, and does not speak directly to the question presented here. The intent of Congress as to the extraterritorial application of this
Petitioners’ reliance on Title VII‘s jurisdictional provisions also finds no support in our case law; we have repeatedly held that even statutes that contain broad language in their definitions of “commerce” that expressly refer to “foreign commerce” do not apply abroad. For example, in New York Central R. Co. v. Chisholm, 268 U. S. 29 (1925), we addressed the extraterritorial application of the Federal Employers’ Liability Act (FELA),
Similarly, in McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras, 372 U. S. 10 (1963), we addressed whether Congress intended the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA),
The EEOC places great weight on an assertedly similar “broad jurisdictional grant in the Lanham Act” that this Court held applied extraterritorially in Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U. S. 280, 286 (1952). Brief for Petitioner in No. 89-1838, p. 12. In Steele, we addressed whether the Lanham Act, designed to prevent deceptive and misleading use of trademarks, applied to acts of a United States citizen consummated in Mexico. The Act defined commerce as “all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress.”
The EEOC‘s attempt to analogize these cases to Steele is unpersuasive. The Lanham Act by its terms applies to “all commerce which may lawfully be regulated by Congress.” The Constitution gives Congress the power “[t]o regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian Tribes.”
Thus petitioners’ argument based on the jurisdictional language of Title VII fails both as a matter of statutory language and of our previous case law. Many Acts of Congress are based on the authority of that body to regulate commerce among the several States, and the parts of these Acts setting forth the basis for legislative jurisdiction will obviously refer to such commerce in one way or another. If we were to permit possible, or even plausible, interpretations of language such as that involved here to override the presumption against extraterritorial application, there would be little left of the presumption.
Petitioners argue that Title VII‘s “alien exemption provision,”
Respondents resist petitioners’ interpretation of the alien-exemption provision and assert two alternative raisons d‘être for that language. First, they contend that since aliens are included in the statute‘s definition of employee,* and the definition of commerce includes possessions as well as “States,” the purpose of the exemption is to provide that employers of aliens in the possessions of the United States are not covered by the statute. Thus, the “outside any State” clause means outside any State, but within the control of the United States. Respondents argue that “[t]his reading of the alien exemption provision is consistent with and supported by the historical development of the provision” because Congress’ inclusion of the provision was a direct response to this Court‘s interpretation of the term “possessions” in the Fair Labor Standards Act in Vermilya-Brown Co. v. Connell, 335 U. S. 377 (1948), to include leased bases in foreign nations that were within the control of the United States. Brief for Respondents 27. They conclude that the alien-exemption provision was included “to limit the impact of Vermilya-Brown by excluding from coverage employers of aliens in areas under U. S. control that” were not encompassed within Title VII‘s definition of the term “State.” Id., at 29.
Second, respondents assert that by negative implication, the exemption “confirm[s] the coverage of aliens in the United States.” Id., at 26. They contend that this inter-
If petitioners are correct that the alien-exemption clause means that the statute applies to employers overseas, we see no way of distinguishing in its application between United States employers and foreign employers. Thus, a French employer of a United States citizen in France would be subject to Title VII-a result at which even petitioners balk. The EEOC assures us that in its view the term “employer” means only “American employer,” but there is no such distinction in this statute and no indication that the EEOC in the normal course of its administration had produced a reasoned basis for such a distinction. Without clearer evidence of congressional intent to do so than is contained in the alien-exemption clause, we are unwilling to ascribe to that body a policy which would raise difficult issues of international law by imposing this country‘s employment-discrimination regime upon foreign corporations operating in foreign commerce.
This conclusion is fortified by the other elements in the statute suggesting a purely domestic focus. The statute as a whole indicates a concern that it not unduly interfere with the sovereignty and laws of the States. See, e. g.,
Similarly, Congress failed to provide any mechanisms for overseas enforcement of Title VII. For instance, the statute‘s venue provisions,
It is also reasonable to conclude that had Congress intended Title VII to apply overseas, it would have addressed the subject of conflicts with foreign laws and procedures. In amending the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), 81 Stat. 602, as amended,
Finally, the EEOC, as one of the two federal agencies with primary responsibility for enforcing Title VII, argues that we should defer to its “consistent” construction of Title VII, first formally expressed in a statement issued after oral argument but before the Fifth Circuit‘s initial decision in this case, Policy Statement No. N-915.033, BNA EEOC Compliance Manual § 605:0055 (Apr. 1989), “to apply to discrimination against
In General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U. S. 125, 140-146 (1976), we addressed the proper deference to be afforded the EEOC‘s guidelines. Recognizing that “Congress, in enacting Title VII, did not confer upon the EEOC authority to promulgate rules or regulations,” we held that the level of deference afforded “‘will depend upon the thoroughness evident in its consideration, the validity of its reasoning, its consistency with earlier and later pronouncements, and all those factors which give it power to persuade, if lacking power to control.‘” Id., at 141, 142 (quoting Skidmore v. Swift & Co., 323 U. S. 134, 140 (1944)).
The EEOC‘s interpretation does not fare well under thesе standards. As an initial matter, the position taken by the Commission “contradicts the position which [it] had enunciated at an earlier date, closer to the enactment of the governing statute.” General Electric Co., supra, at 142. The Commission‘s early pronouncements on the issue supported the conclusion that the statute was limited to domestic application. See 29 CFR § 1606.1(c) (1971) (“Title VII . . . protects all individuals, both citizen and noncitizens, domiciled or residing in the United States, against discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin“). While the Commission later intimated that the statute applied abroad, this position was not expressly reflected in its policy guidelines until some 24 years after the passage of the statute. The EEOC offers no basis in its experience for the change. The EEOC‘s interpretation of the statute here thus has been neither contemporaneous with its enactment nor consistent since the statute came into law. As discussed above, it also lacks support in the plain language of the stat-
Our conclusion today is buttressed by the fact that “[w]hen it desires to do so, Congress knows how to place the high seas within the jurisdictional reach of a statute.” Argentine Republic v. Amerada Hess Shipping Corp., 488 U. S. 428, 440 (1989). Congress’ awareness of the need to make a clear statement that a statute applies overseas is amply demonstrated by the numerous occasions on which it has expressly legislated the extraterritorial application of a statute. See, e. g., the Export Administration Act of 1979,
Petitioners have failed to present sufficient affirmative evidence that Congress intended Title VII to apply abroad. Accordingly, the judgment of the Court of Appeals is
Affirmed.
JUSTICE SCALIA, concurring in part and concurring in the judgment.
I join the judgment of the Court and its opinion except that portion, ante, at 256-258, asserting that the views of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission-not only with respect to the particular point at issue here but apparently as a general matter-are not entitled to the deference normally afforded administrative agencies under Chevron U. S. A. Inc. v. Natural Resources Defense Council, Inc., 467 U. S. 837 (1984). The case relied upon for the proposition that the EEOC‘s interpretations have only the force derived from their “power to persuade” was decided in an era when we were disposed to give deference (as opposed to “persuasive force“) only to so-called “legislative regulations.” The reasoning of General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U. S. 125 (1976) was not that the EEOC (singled out from other agencies) was not entitled to deference, but that the EEOC‘s guidelines, like the guidelines of all agencies without explicit rulemaking
In an era when our treatment of agency positions is governed by Chevron, the “legislative rules vs. other action” dichotomy of Gilbert is an anachronism; and it is not even a correct description of that anachronism to say that Gilbert held that the EEOC (as opposed to all agency action other than legislative rules) is not entitled to deference. We recognized that only three years ago in EEOC v. Commercial Office Products Co., 486 U. S. 107 (1988)-which case, rather than Gilbert, was our last word on deference to the EEOC. We said, in language quite familiar from our cases following Chevron, that “the EEOC‘s interpretation of ambiguous language need only be reasonable to be entitled to deference.” Id., at 115. Commercial Office Products has not been overruled (or even mentioned) in today‘s opinion, so that the state of the law regarding deference to the EEOC is left unsettled.
I would resolve these cases by assuming, without deciding, that the EEOC was entitled to deference on the particular point in question. But deference is not abdication, and it requires us to accept only those agency interpretations that are reasonable in light of the principles of construction courts normally employ. Given the presumption against extraterritoriality that the Court accurately describes, and the requirement that the intent to overcome it be “clearly expressed,” it is in my view not reasonable to give effect to mere implications from the statutory language as the EEOC has done. Cf. Sunstein, Law and Administration after Chevron, 90 Colum. L. Rev. 2071, 2114 (1990).
On all other points, I join the opinion of the Court.
JUSTICE MARSHALL, with whom JUSTICE BLACKMUN and JUSTICE STEVENS join, dissenting.
Like any issue of statutory construction, the question whether Title VII protects United States citizens frоm discrimination by United States employers abroad turns solely on congressional intent. As the majority recognizes, our in-
I
Because it supplies the driving force of the majority‘s analysis, I start with “[t]he canon . . . that legislation of Congress, unless a contrary intent appears, is meant to apply only within the territorial jurisdiction of the United States.” Ibid. The majority recasts this principle as “the need to make a clear statement that a statute applies overseas.” Ante, at 258 (emphasis added). So conceived, the presumption against extraterritoriality allows the majority to derive meaning from various instances of statutory silence-from Congress’ failure, for instance, “to mention foreign nations or foreign proceedings,” ante, at 256, “to provide any mechanisms for overseas enforcement,” ibid., or to “addres[s] the subject of conflicts with foreign laws and procedures,” ante, at 256. At other points, the majority relies on its reformulation of the presumption to avoid the “need [to] choose between . . . competing interpretations” of affirmative statu-
Our most extensive discussion of the presumption against extraterritoriality can be found in Foley Brothers, supra. The issue in that case was whether the Eight Hour Law-a statute regulating the length of the workday of employees hired to perform contractual work for the United States-applied to construction рrojects in foreign nations. After noting “the assumption that Congress is primarily concerned with domestic conditions,” the Court concluded that there was “nothing in the Act itself, as amended, nor in the legislative history, which would lead to the belief that Congress entertained any intention other than the normal one in this case.” 336 U. S., at 285. The Court put particular emphasis on “[t]he scheme of the Act,” including Congress’ failure to draw a “distinction . . . therein between laborers who are aliens and those who are citizens of the United States.” Id., at 286. “The absence of any [such] distinction,” the Court explained, “indicates . . . that the statute was intended to apply only to those places where the labor conditions of both citizen and alien employees are a probable concern of Congress.” Ibid. The Court also engaged in extended analyses of the legislative history of the statute, see id., at 286-288, and of pertinent administrative interpretations, see id., at 288-290.
The range of factors that the Court considered in Foley Brothers demonstrates that the presumption against extraterritoriality is not a “clear statement” rule. Clear-statement rules operate less to reveal actual congressional intent than to shield important values from an insufficiently strong legislative intеnt to displace them. See, e. g., Webster v. Doe, 486 U. S. 592, 601, 603 (1988); Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon, 473 U. S. 234, 242-243 (1985); Kent v. Dulles, 357 U. S. 116, 130 (1958). When they apply, such rules foreclose inquiry into extrinsic guides to interpretation, see, e. g., Dellmuth v. Muth, 491 U. S. 223, 230 (1989), and even compel courts to select less plausible candidates from within the range of permissible constructions, see, e. g., Edward J. DeBartolo Corp. v. Florida Gulf Coast Building & Construction Trades Council, 485 U. S. 568, 575 (1988). The Court‘s analysis in Foley Brothers was by no means so narrowly constrained. Indeed, the Court considered the entire range of conventional sources “whereby unexpressed congressional intent may be ascertained,” 336 U. S., at 285 (emphasis added),1 including legislative history, statutory structure, and administrative interpretations. Subsequent applications of the presumption against extraterritoriality confirm that we have not imposed the drastic clear-statement burden upon Congress before giving effect to its intention that a particular enactment apply beyond the national boundaries. See, e. g., Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U. S. 280, 286-287 (1952) (relying on “broad jurisdictional grant” to find intention that Lanham Act applies abroad).
The majority converts the presumption against extraterritoriality into a clear-statement rule in part through selective quotation. Thus, the majority reports that the Court in New York Central R. Co. v. Chisholm, 268 U. S. 29 (1925), declined to construe the Federal Employers’ Liability Act to apply extraterritorially becаuse it concluded that the statute “‘contains no words which definitely disclose an intention to give it extraterritorial effect,‘” ante, at 251, quoting 268 U. S., at 31. The majority omits the remainder of the quoted sentence, which states, “nor do the circumstances require an inference of such purpose.” 268 U. S., at 31 (emphasis added). Similarly, the majority notes that the Court in McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional de Marineros de Honduras, 372 U. S. 10 (1963), did not find “‘any specific language‘” in the National
The majority also overstates the strength of the presumption by drawing on language from cases involving a wholly independent rule of construction: “that ‘an act of congress ought never to be construed to violate the law of nations if any other possible construction remains....‘” McCulloch v. Sociedad Nacional, supra, at 21, quoting The Charming Betsy, 2 Cranch 64, 118 (1804) (Marshall, C. J.); see Benz v. Compania Naviera Hidalgo, S. A., 353 U. S. 138, 146-147 (1957). At issue in Benz was whether the
Far from equating Benz and McCulloch‘s clear-statement rule with Foley‘s presumption against extraterritoriality, the Court has until now recognized that Benz and McCulloch are reserved for settings in which the extraterritorial application of a statute would “implicat[e] sensitive issues of the authority of the Executive over relations with foreign nations.” NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, 440 U. S. 490, 500 (1979); see Weinberger v. Rossi, 456 U. S. 25, 32 (1982) (McCulloch rule designed to avoid constructions that raise “foreign policy implications“); Longshoremen v. Ariadne Shipping Co., 397 U. S. 195, 198-199 (1970) (declining to follow Benz and McCulloch in setting in which United States citizens were employed by foreign vessels). The strictness of the McCulloch and Benz presumption permits the Court to avoid, if possible, the separation-of-powers and international-comity questions associated with construing a statute to displace the domestic law of another nation. See NLRB v. Catholic Bishop of Chicago, supra, at 500. Nothing nearly so dramatic is at stake when Congress merely seeks to regulate the conduct of United States nationals abroad. See Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., supra, at 285-286; Skiriotes v. Florida, 313 U. S. 69, 73-74 (1941).2
Because petitioners advance a construction of Title VII that would extend its extraterritorial reach only to United States nationals, it is the weak presumption of Foley Brothers, not the strict clear-statement rule of Benz and
II
A
Title VII states:
“It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any individual, or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with respect to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of employment, because of such individual‘s race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2(a)(1) .
Under the statute, “[t]he term ‘employer’ means a person engaged in an industry affecting commerсe who has fifteen or more employees,”
These terms are broad enough to encompass discrimination by United States employers abroad. Nothing in the text of the statute indicates that the protection of an “individual” from employment discrimination depends on the location of that individual‘s workplace; nor does anything in the statute indicate that employers whose businesses affect commerce between “a State and any other place outside thereof” are exempted when their discriminatory conduct occurs beyond the Nation‘s borders. While conceding that it is “plausible” to infer from the breadth of the statute‘s central prohibition that Congress intended Title VII to apply extraterritorially,
Confirmation that Congress did in fact expect Title VII‘s central prohibition to have an extraterritorial reach is supplied by the so-called “alien exemption” provision. The alien-exemption provision states that Title VII “shall not apply to an employer with respect to the employment of aliens outside any State.”
The inference arising from the alien-exemption provision is more than sufficient to rebut the presumption against extraterritoriality. Compare Pennsylvania v. Union Gas Co., 491 U. S. 1 (1989). In Union Gas, we considered the question whether Congress had stated with sufficient clarity its intention to abrogate the States’ Eleventh Amendment immunity under the
The history of the alien-exemption provision confirms the inference that Congress expected Title VII to have extraterritorial application. As I have explained, the Court in Foley Brothers declined to construe the
“Unless we were to read such a distinction into the statute we should be forced to conclude ... that Congress intended to regulate the working hours of a citizen of Iran who chanced to be employed on a public work of the United States in that foreign land. ... An intention so to regulate labor conditions which are the primary concern of a foreign country should not be attributed to Congress in the absence of a clearly expressed purpose.” 336 U. S., at 286.
The language comprising the alien-exemption provision first appeared in an employment-discrimination bill introduced only seven weeks after the Court decided Foley Brothers, see H. R. 4453, 81st Cong., 1st Sess. (1949), and was clearly aimed at insulating that legislation from the concern that prevented the Court from adopting an extraterritorial construction of the
“In section 4 of the Act, a limited exception is provided for employers with respect to employment of aliens outside of any State.... The intent of [this] exemption is to remove conflicts of law which might otherwise exist between the United States and a foreign nation in the employment of aliens outside the United States by an American enterprise.” H. R. Rep. No. 570, 88th Cong., 1st Sess. 4 (1963) (emphasis added), reprinted in Civil Rights, Hearings on H. R. 7152, as amended, before Subcommittee No. 5 of the Committee on the Judiсiary, 88th Cong., 1st Sess., 2303 (Civil Rights Hearings).4
See also S. Rep. No. 867, 88th Cong., 2d Sess., 11 (1964) (“Exempted from the bill are ... U. S. employers employing citizens of foreign countries in foreign lands” (emphasis added)).
Notwithstanding the basic rule of construction requiring courts to give effect to all of the statutory language, see Reiter v. Sonotone Corp., 442 U. S. 330, 339 (1979), the majority never advances an alternative explanation of the alien-exemption provision that is consistent with the majority‘s own conclusion that Congress intended Title VII to have a purely domestic focus. The closest that the majority comes to attempting to give meaning to the alien-exemption provision is to identify without endorsement “two alternative raisons d‘être for that language” offered by respondents. Ante, at 254. Neither of these explanations is even minimally persuasive.
Respondents’ second explanation is that Congress included the alien-exemption provision in anticipation that courts would otherwise construe Title VII to apply to companies employing aliens in United States “possessions,” an outcome supposedly dictated by this Court‘s decision in Vermilya-Brown Co. v. Connell, 335 U. S. 377 (1948). This explanation may very well be true, but it only corroborates the conclusion that Congress expected Title VII to apply extraterritorially. Although there is no fixed legal meaning for the term “possession,” see id., at 386, it is clear that possessions, like foreign nations, are extraterritorial jurisdictions to which the presumption against extraterritorial application of a statute attaches. See Foley Bros., supra, at 285.5 Because only one rule of construction applies to both types of jurisdiction, a
B
Rather than attempting to reconcile its interpretation of Title VII with the language and legislative history of the alien-exemption provision, the majority contents itself with pointing out various legislative silences that, in the majority‘s view, communicate a congressional intent to limit Title VII to instances of domestic employment discrimination. In particular, the majority claims that, had Congress intended to give Title VII an extraterritorial reach, it “would have addressed the subject of cоnflicts with foreign laws and procedures,” ante, at 256, and would have “provide[d] ... mechanisms for overseas enforcement,” including special venue provisions and extraterritorial investigatory powers for the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), see ibid.
The majority also emphasizes Congress’ failure to draw an express distinction between extraterritorial application of Title VII to United States employers and extraterritorial application of Title VII to foreign employers. See ante, at 255. In my view, none of these supposed omissions detracts from the conclusion that Congress intended Title VII to apply extraterritorially.
The majority also misrepresents the character of Title VII‘s venue provisions. Title VII provides that venue is proper in various districts related to the underlying charge of discrimination, but also states that
“if the [employer] is not found within any such district, such an action may be brought within the judicial district in which the [employer] has his principal office.”
42 U. S. C. § 2000e-5(f)(3) .
“Principal office” venue would extend to any United States employer doing business abroad. Identical language is found in the venue provision of the
Title VII does limit the reach of the subpoena power of the EEOC, see
Finally, the majority overstates the importance of Congress’ failure expressly to disclaim extraterritorial application of Title VII to foreign employers. As I have discussed, our cases recognize that application of United States law to United States nationals abroad ordinarily raises considerably less serious questions of international comity than does the application of United States law to foreign nationals abroad. See Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., 344 U. S., at 285-286; Skiriotes v. Florida, 313 U. S., at 73-74. It is the latter situation that typically presents the foreign-policy and conflicts-of-law concerns that underlie the clear-statement rule of McCulloch and Benz. Because two different rules of construction apply depending on the national identity of the regulated parties, the same statute might be construed to apply extraterritorially to United States nationals but not to foreign nationals. Compare Steele v. Bulova Watch Co., supra, at 285-287 (applying Lanham Act to United States national for conduct abroad) with Vanity Fair Mills, Inc. v. T. Eaton Co., 234 F. 2d 633, 642-643 (CA2) (declining to apply Lanham Act to foreign national for conduct abroad), cert. denied, 352 U. S. 871 (1956). Cf. Webster v. Doe, 486 U. S., at 599-601, 603 (finding language in judicial-review statute to have different meanings depending on applicability of different rules of construction).
The legislative history of Title VII, moreover, furnishes direct support for such a construction. See H. R. Rep. No. 570, at 4 (explaining that alien-exemption provision applies to “employment of aliens outside the United States by an
III
The extraterritorial application of Title VII is supported not only by its language and legislative history but also by pertinent administrative interpretations. See Foley Bros., 336 U. S., at 288. Since 1975, the EEOC has been on record as construing Title VII to apply to United States companies employing United States citizens abroad:
“Section [2000e-2(a)(1)] provides that it is unlawful to discriminate against ‘any individual’ with respect to his employment.... The only exception to ‘any individual’ appears to be that contained in Section [2000e-1], i. e., aliens working outside the U. S. and to employees of certain religious and educational institutions.
“Giving Section [2000e-1] its normal mеaning would indicate a Congressional intent to exclude from the coverage of the statute aliens employed by covered employers working in the employers’ operations outside of the United States.
“The reason for such exclusions is obvious; employment conditions in foreign countries are beyond the control of Congress. The section does not similarly exempt from the provisions of the Act, U. S. Citizens employed abroad by U. S. employers. If Section [2000e-1] is to
have any meaning at all, therefore, it is necessary to construe it as expressing a Congressional intent to extend the coverage of Title VII to include employment conditions of citizens in overseas operations of domestic corporations at the same time it excludes aliens of the domestic corporation from the operation of the statute.” Letter from W. Carey, EEOC General Counsel, to Senator Frank Church (Mar. 14, 1975), reprinted in App. 48-49.
The agency has reiterated this interpretation in various decisions and policy pronouncements since then. See, e. g., EEOC Dec. No. 85-16 (Sept. 16, 1985), 38 FEP Cases 1889, 1891-1892; EEOC Policy Statement No. 125, supra, at 605:005 to 605:0057. “[I]t is axiomatic that the EEOC‘s interpretation of Title VII, for which it has primary enforcement responsibility, need not be the best one by grammatical or any other standards. Rather, the EEOC‘s interpretation of ambiguous language need only be reasonable to be entitled to deference.” EEOC v. Commercial Office Products Co., 486 U. S. 107, 115 (1988).
In this case, moreover, the EEOC‘s interpretation is reinforced by the long-standing interpretation of the Department of Justice, the agency with secondary enforcement responsibility under Title VII. See Sheet Metal Workers v. EEOC, 478 U. S. 421, 465-466 (1986) (plurality opinion) (deference owed Department of Justice interpretation of Title VII). Stating the position of the Department, then-Assistant Attorney General Scalia testified before Congress:
“With respect to discrimination in employment by private companies and individuals, Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, as amended, prohibits a broad range of ‘unlawful employment practices’ by any private employer ‘engaged in any industry affecting commerce who has fifteen or more employees.‘... Once again the [statute] contains an exemption ‘with respect to the employment of aliens outside any State,’ which implies that it is
applicable to the employment of United States citizens by covered emрloyers anywhere in the world.” Foreign Investment and Arab Boycott Legislation, Hearings before the Subcommittee on International Finance of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, 94th Cong., 1st Sess., 165 (1975).
The majority offers no response to the view of the Department of Justice. It discounts the force of the EEOC‘s views on the ground that the EEOC has been inconsistent. The majority points to a 1970 EEOC regulation in which the agency declared that “Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects all individuals, both citizen and noncitizens, domiciled or residing in the United States, against discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
This conclusion is based on a misreading of
In sum, there is no reason not to give effect to the considered and consistently expressed views of the two agencies assigned to enforce Title VII.
IV
In the hands of the majority, the presumption against extraterritoriality is transformed from a “valid approach whereby unexpressed congressional intent may be ascertained,” Foley Bros., 336 U. S., at 285, into a barrier to any genuine inquiry into the sources that reveal Congrеss’ actual intentions. Because the language, history, and administrative interpretations of the statute all support application of Title VII to United States companies employing United States citizens abroad, I dissent.