Susan Baldwin v. Blue Cross/Blue Shield of AL

CARNES, Circuit Judge:

Employers generally are liable for a supervisor’s sexual harassment if the harassment is severe and pervasive enough to result in a hostile work environment amounting to discrimination prohibited by Title VII, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq. There is, however, an affirmative defense, which the Supreme Court wrote into the law in Faragher v. City of Boca Raton, 524 U.S. 775, 118 S.Ct. 2275, 141 L.Ed.2d 662 (1998), and Burlington Industries, Inc. v. Ellerth, 524 U.S. 742, 118 S.Ct. 2257, 141 L.Ed.2d 633 (1998). The defense has two halves, one of which focuses on the employer’s…