Employment Discrimination

Employees who cooperate with an internal investigation and report inappropriate behavior in the workplace are protected from retaliation under civil rights laws, the Supreme Court said Monday, strengthening the laws against sexual harassment on the job.

The Supreme Court on Tuesday decided not to decide one of its most closely watched job discrimination cases. The non-decision was unanimous. At issue was whether a laid-off older worker who sued her employer for age bias could rely on the testimony of other older workers who also were fired from the same company.

To the surprise of civil rights advocates, the Supreme Court on Tuesday strengthened workplace anti-discrimination laws, ruling that employees who say they were punished for complaining of bias can sue for damages. In a pair of decisions, the court concluded that claims of retaliation were covered by long-standing civil rights laws, even though this kind of discrimination was not mentioned specifically in the statutes.

The Supreme Court on Monday limited the rights of public employees, ruling that a state worker who said she was fired by a supervisor who was out to "get rid of" her could not sue the government for denying her equal protection of the laws. In a 6-3 ruling, the justices refused to open the courthouse door to what some have called discrimination lawsuits by a "class of one."

Millions of Americans with diseases or impairments such as diabetes, epilepsy, heart disease, cancer and carpal tunnel syndrome will be protected from job discrimination under a new disability rights measure set to become law this week. The bill, five years in the making, won final passage in Congress last week, and President Bush said he would sign it. The measure overturns a series of Supreme Court rulings that sharply limited who was covered by the Americans With Disabilities Act.

A Los Angeles jury Monday awarded $3.1 million to a Los Angeles police officer who said he was retaliated against for reporting that his superior used racial epithets and might have been involved in embezzlement of department funds. Robert Hill, a 25-year veteran of the department, said he was called a "rat" and moved to an inferior assignment at a less desirable division after he reported that Sgt.

Female managers at Costco Wholesale Corp. can go ahead with a class-action discrimination lawsuit against the Issaquah, Wash.-based retailer, a federal judge ruled Thursday. Judge Marilyn Hall Patel wrote that the women "presented strong evidence of a common culture at Costco which disadvantages women." As many as 700 women in Costco middle management may be affected by the ruling.

Allegations of doctored evidence and cover-ups have enveloped the reverse discrimination lawsuit targeting Orange County Assessor Webster J. Guillory, the only African American holding countywide elected office. The assessor is accused of promoting a black employee over a more experienced white worker, who alleges that he was passed over for the job of managing auditor even though, he says, he received a higher score in interviews.

A jury on Monday rejected a claim that Orange County Assessor Webster J. Guillory, the only African American holding countywide office, discriminated against a white employee by promoting a less qualified black co-worker. After deliberating less than two days, the jury concluded race was not an issue in Guillory's decision to promote Brian Ennis instead of Ronald Cooper and found the men equally qualified.

A veteran city prosecutor has filed a whistle-blower lawsuit alleging that Los Angeles City Atty. Rocky Delgadillo retaliated against her for complaining about the work of outside law firms hired by the city and whose partners and associates are major political supporters of Delgadillo.