After receiving RCCL's position statement, the EEOC requested a list of all employees discharged by

Paula Rene' Bruner, Donna J. Brusoski, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission Office of General Counsel–Appellate Services, Washington, DC, Robert K. Dawkins, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, chicago cubs baseball tickets Atlanta, GA, Wifredo A. Ferrer, Kathleen Mary Salyer U.S. Attorney's Office, Miami, FL, Kimberly Ann McCoy, City Attorney's Office of Miami Beach, Miami Beach, FL, for Plaintiff–Appellant. David Michael DeMaio, Gregory Robert Hawran, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, PC, Miami, FL, A. Craig Cleland, Ogletree Deakins Nash Smoak & Stewart, PC, Atlanta, GA, for Defendant–Appellee.
The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("the EEOC" or "the Commission") appeals the district court's denial of the EEOC's application for enforcement of its administrative subpoena issued to Royal Caribbean Cruises, Ltd. ("RCCL"). After careful consideration and with the benefit of oral argument, we affirm. 1
In June 2010, Jose Morabito, an Argentinean national who was employed by RCCL as an assistant waiter on one of its cruise ships, filed a charge of discrimination with the EEOC. Mr. Morabito alleged that RCCL violated the Americans with Disabilities Act ("ADA"), 42 U.S.C. § 12112, when RCCL refused to renew his employment chicago cubs baseball tickets contract after he was diagnosed with a medical condition. Mr. Morabito had been diagnosed with HIV and Kaposi Sarcoma, but he had been declared chicago cubs baseball tickets fit for duty by his physician.
RCCL responded to the charge with a position statement contending that (1) the ADA was inapplicable because Mr. Morabito was a foreign national who was employed on a ship flying the flag of the Bahamas and (2) because RCCL's ships are registered under the law of the Bahamas, RCCL was required to follow the Bahamas Maritime Authority ("BMA") medical standards for seafarers, which allegedly disqualified Mr. Morabito from duty at sea.
After receiving RCCL's position statement, the EEOC requested a list of all employees discharged by RCCL since 2010 pursuant to the BMA medical standards. RCCL objected, asserting that the ADA did not cover foreign nationals working on foreign-flagged ships and that the information sought was not relevant to Mr. Morabito's charge.
(2) For each employee listed in response to request number 1, include employee's name, citizenship, employment contract, position title, reason for and date of discharge, a copy of the separation chicago cubs baseball tickets notice and the last known contact information for each individual.
(3) For each employee listed in response to request number l, include their employment application and related correspondence, any interview notes, the identity of the person who hired the employee, how the employee obtained the position (i.e. online, in person, recruiter), the location where the employee was interviewed, and the identity and location of the person who made the final hiring decision.
(5) For each employee listed in response to request number 4, include their citizenship, employment application and related correspondence, any interview notes, the identity of the person chicago cubs baseball tickets [who] hired the employee, how the employee learned of the position (i.e. online, in person, recruiter), the location where the employee was interviewed, and the identity and location of the person who made the final hiring decisions.
chicago cubs baseball tickets RCCL partially complied by providing records for employees or applicants who were United States chicago cubs baseball tickets citizens. The EEOC sought chicago cubs baseball tickets to compel enforcement of the requests for the remaining records regarding non-U.S. citizens who had been discharged or denied employment because of a medical condition.
The magistrate judge recommended chicago cubs baseball tickets that the petition to enforce the subpoena be denied on the grounds that the information sought was not relevant to Mr. Morabito's chicago cubs baseball tickets charge and that compliance with the disputed portions of the subpoena would be unduly burdensome. The EEOC filed objections with the district court. The district court rejected the EEOC's contentions and affirmed and adopted the magistrate judge's report and recommendation. The EEOC appeals.
In investigating allegations of unlawful employment practices, the EEOC is entitled to inspect and copy "any evidence of any person being investigated or proceeded against that relates chicago cubs baseball tickets to unlawful employment practices ․ and is relevant to the charge under investigation." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–8(a) (2012). Although "courts have generously chicago cubs baseball tickets construed the term 'relevant' chicago cubs baseball tickets and have afforded the Commission access to virtually any material that might cast light on the allegations against the employer," the Supreme Court has cautioned against construing the EEOC's investigative authority so broadly that the relevancy requirement is rendered "a nullity." EEOC v. Shell Oil Co., 466 U.S. 54, 68–69 (1984). A district court also "may weigh such equitable criteria as reasonableness and oppressiveness in issuing a subpoena for documents." EEOC v. Packard Elec. Div., Gen. Motors Corp., 569 F.2d 315, 318 (5th Cir.1978). 4
"The 'relevance' of documents in an administrative proceeding is a mixed question of law and fact, which implies that our standard of review of such determinations should look either to 'legal error' or to 'clear error,' depending on the circumstances." chicago cubs baseball tickets Id. at 317–18. We review the district court's balancing of the relative hardships and benefits chicago cubs baseball tickets of enforcement for abuse of discretion. Id . at 318. We find no error in the district court's opinion.
As the district court noted, the record below makes clear that the disputed chicago cubs baseball tickets portions of the subpoena are aimed at discovering members of a potential class of employees or applicants who suffered from a pattern or practice of discrimination, rather chicago cubs baseball tickets than fleshing out Mr. Morabito's charge. Although chicago cubs baseball tickets statistical and comparative data in some cases may be relevant in determining whether unlawful discrimination occurred, the EEOC was required to make some showing that the requested information "bears on the subject matter of the [ ] individual complaint[ ]." Id.
The arguments presented by the EEOC on this point amounted to simply parroting the Supreme Court's statement that the information "might cast light on the allegations" against RCCL. Shell Oil, 466 U.S. at 69. It is not immediately clear, however, why company-wide data regarding employees and applicants around the world with any medical condition, including conditions not specifically covered by the BMA medical standards or similar chicago cubs baseball tickets to Mr. Morabito's, would shed light on Mr. Morabito's individual charge that he was fired because of his HIV and Kaposi Sarcoma diagnoses. This is especially so as RCCL admits that Mr. Morabito was terminated because of his medical condition, which RCCL alleges was required by the BMA medical standards. This does not appear to be a case where statistical data is needed to determine whether an employer's facially neutral explanation for the adverse employment decision is pretext for discrimination. chicago cubs baseball tickets We cannot chicago cubs baseball tickets say based on the record before us that the district court clearly erred in determining the interrelation, or lack thereof, chicago cubs baseball tickets between chicago cubs baseball tickets the information chicago cubs baseball tickets sought and the allegations in Mr. Morabito's charge. See Packard, 569 F.2d at 318 (holding that district court's finding that facility-wide statistical data was not relevant to individual charges of discrimination was not clearly erroneous); EEOC v. United Air Lines, Inc., 287 F.3d 643, 654–55 (7th Cir.2002) (holding chicago cubs baseball tickets that world-wide company information regarding employees who had taken medical leave of absence or had been laid off and benefits they received was not relevant to resolving chicago cubs baseball tickets individual flight attendant's charge that employer unlawfully failed to make contributions to French social security system on behalf of Americans employed or domiciled in France).
The EEOC focused most of its efforts before the district court, chicago cubs baseball tickets and in its briefs before chicago cubs baseball tickets us, on its argument that the EEOC is entitled to expand the investigation chicago cubs baseball tickets to uncover other potential violations and victims of discrimination on the basis of disability. According to the EEOC, this information is relevant because it is the same type of discrimination alleged in Mr. Morabito's charge and RCCL's reliance on the BMA standards suggests that others might have been discriminated against. We do not construe the relevancy standard so broadly. It might be that this information is related to Mr. Morabito's individual charge, but the standard by which the EEOC's subpoena power is governed is "relevant to the charge under investigation." 42 U.S.C. § 2000e–8(a) (emphasis added). The relevance that is necessary to support a subpoena for the investigation of an individual charge is relevance to the contested issues that must be decided to resolve that charge, not relevance to issues that may be contested when and if future charges are brought by others. Because RCCL has admitted that the reason that it refused to renew Mr. Morabito's contract is his medical condition, whether it refused to renew other employee's contracts for the same reason is irrelevant to his charge. That issue is settled. Although eradicating unlawful discrimination and protecting other as-yet undiscovered victims are laudatory goals and within the Commission's broad mandate, the EEOC must still make the necessary chicago cubs baseball tickets showing of relevancy in attempting to enforce its subpoena. chicago cubs baseball tickets We agree with the magistrate judge and the district court that the broad company-wide information sought by the EEOC here has not been demonstrated to be relevant to the only contested issues that remain from those that arose as a result chicago cubs baseball tickets of the individual charge brought by Mr. Morabito.
Even if the information sought has some tenuous relevance to the charge filed by Mr. Morabito, we find no error in the district court's holding that compliance with the subpoena would be unduly burdensome to RCCL. As explained, the information sought by the EEOC is at best tangentially relevant to Mr. Morabito's individual charge of discrimination. The only issues chicago cubs baseball tickets in dispute chicago cubs baseball tickets regarding Mr. Morabito's individual charge are whether the EEOC has