WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday gave workers age 40 and older greater rights to sue an employer for age discrimination, even if there was no evidence that such bias was intentional.
The 5-3 ruling expands the reach of federal law against age discrimination by opening the door to lawsuits involving rules and requirements that do not mention the age of employees.
The decision affects about 75 million workers -- more than half the nation's labor force, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
But the justices said employers could successfully defend themselves against such claims if they could show they had a good business reason for adopting the policy.
"Age, unlike race ... [sometimes] has relevance to an individual's capacity to engage in certain types of employment," said Justice John Paul Stevens, who turns 85 in April and who wrote the majority opinion.
Nonetheless, he continued, older workers should be allowed to sue if they can point to a "specific test, requirement or practice ... that has an adverse impact on them."
Until now, the high court had said that older workers must show "intentional discrimination" by an employer to win a claim under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967, which covers workers 40 and older. Early on, many of these claims targeted mandatory retirement rules based on age.
Lower courts had been split on whether the law allowed older workers to sue over a neutral policy that had an adverse effect on them because of their age.
As an example of such a case, lawyers said one such rule would be a job test that focused on computer literacy for a position that did not require computer use. Such a test may have an adverse effect on older applicants.
Another often-cited example is a layoff policy that targets high-salaried workers or those eligible for retirement benefits.
Lawyers who represent older workers applauded the outcome. "This is a very good result, a huge victory for older workers," said Laurie McCann, a lawyer for AARP, the nation's largest lobbying group for seniors.
"These cases will not be easy to win, but at least they can be brought in court," she said.
The court's handling of the case decided Wednesday illustrated the complex nature of such suits and the high threshold needed to win claims.
