Braddy v. Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Co.

CLARK, Circuit Judge:

In this case the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) seeks the power to act as a party to litigate issues relevant to its basic function, a function permitted to most of its sister agencies. But having found that Congress did not invest it with this prerogative, we can no more create it judicially than we could clothe ourselves with jurisdiction not conferred.

The setting against which the issue is presented is this. Doris Braddy filed a class action against Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company (Bell) on behalf of all unwed, mothers, alleging that…