The Labor Department says that Oracle has refused to obey requests for employment data, such as discrimination complaints, hiring data and prior-year compensation levels. Compliance officials say they spent "almost a year" trying to solve discrimination issues before the lawsuit came about.

It won't shock you at all to hear that Oracle disputes the claims. In a statement to USA Today, the company insists that the lawsuit is "politically motivated, based on false allegations, and wholly without merit." True or not, the stakes are high. Oracle is a government contractor, and that means it risks losing all its government contracts if it's found to be violating anti-discrimination rules. It may not have much choice but to turn over data and change its ways if it wants to avoid both losing a major customer and hurting its reputation.