Employment Litigation · Primary-source case analysis

Fort Bend County: Title VII Charge Filing Is Mandatory but Not Jurisdictional

By Aneeta Mishra and Timothy Chan

Published May 4, 2026

Fort Bend County v. Davis explains why a required pre-suit step can be enforceable without belonging to the narrower class of jurisdictional rules that courts must address at any time.

The objection arrived years into the case

Lois Davis filed an EEOC charge alleging sexual harassment and retaliation and attempted to add religious discrimination through an intake form. After years of litigation, the county argued for the first time that the religion claim had not been properly included and that the court therefore lacked jurisdiction.

Congress must clearly mark a rule as jurisdictional

The Court reserves the jurisdictional label for rules defining a court's adjudicatory authority. Mandatory procedural prescriptions ordinarily remain claim-processing rules unless Congress clearly states otherwise.

The charge requirement was nonjurisdictional

Title VII places its charge-filing instructions separately from the provisions conferring federal-court jurisdiction. The requirement remains mandatory when timely invoked, but an employer can forfeit the objection by waiting too long.

The judgment was affirmed

The unanimous Court affirmed the decision allowing the case to proceed because the county had tardily asserted the charge-filing objection. The holding does not make administrative exhaustion optional or prevent prompt enforcement of a preserved defense.

Key takeaways

• File a complete and timely EEOC charge before suit.
• Compare pleaded claims with the actual administrative charge.
• Raise any charge-filing defense promptly or risk forfeiture.
• Distinguish subject-matter jurisdiction from mandatory claim-processing rules.