Forklift Systems. Sexual conduct had been front and center in the culture wars since the courts began recognizing harassment at work, most notably in the 1986 Supreme Court decision in Mechelle Vinson’s case against the bank. Nothing unbalances the balance of power between the sexes like the possibility that a woman can bring a costly and embarrassing lawsuit grounded in sex. No one wanted to advocate for people like the noxious bank manager Sidney Taylor, so the discussion took cozier forms. Judge Alex Kozinski, a conservative intellectual beacon of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, worried that people would hesitate to initiate “office romance.” Without romance, the office would be a much less inviting place and who would want to work there? Harvard’s media star Alan Dershowitz thought offensive sex talk in the workplace was protected free speech under the First Amendment. The well-respected conservative legal theorist Judge Richard Posner wondered if sexual harassment wasn’t just usually a misunderstanding.
