WASHINGTON — With workplace age-discrimination claims rising rapidly, the Supreme Court made it much harder Thursday for older workers to win in court.
The 5-4 decision reversed a long-standing rule. Many federal appellate courts had decided that if a worker could show age was one of the factors in a layoff or demotion, then the employer was required to prove it had a legitimate reason for its action apart from age.
The court's conservative majority, led by Justice Clarence Thomas, threw out this two-step approach. Instead, the court said, workers bear the full burden of proving that age was the deciding factor in their dismissal or demotion.
Because workers claiming such discrimination almost certainly will not be present while their employers discuss laying them off or demoting them, analysts said, it will be extremely difficult to obtain hard evidence that age was the key factor.
"This is a significant and marked change," said Diana Hoover, a corporate defense lawyer in Houston. "It imposes a difficult burden on the employee. You are not going to have an employer stand up and announce, 'I'm discriminating against you because of your age.' "
The ruling comes as concern about age discrimination is rising, especially as companies downsize in the difficult economy. The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission said the number of new age-bias claims last year rose by 29% from 2007.
Businesses applauded the decision in Gross vs. FBL Financial Services, saying employers sometimes settle weak claims to avoid battling before a jury over the real reasons behind a layoff.
"This is extremely important to small-business owners," said Karen Harned, executive director of the National Federation of Independent Business. She said employers should not have to defend themselves in court "based on speculative evidence that age was merely a motivating factor in an employer's decision."
But the National Senior Citizens Law Center, AARP and several civil rights groups sharply criticized it, urging Congress to trump the ruling with legislation.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.) likened it to the Lilly Ledbetter decision from two years ago.
In that case, the same 5-4 majority said a woman who for years had been paid less than men for the same work could not sue because she had not learned about the discrimination until she retired -- long after the statute of limitations had expired.
