A Supreme Court ruling allowing employees to file suit under a Reconstruction Era civil rights law claims retaliation by employers may expose those employers to more severe judgments, according to employment practices attorneys.
"The cost of being found to have retaliated for claims of race discrimination may just have gone up," said Paul Mickey, a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe and Johnson LLP.
In a 7-2 ruling on the case of CBOCS West Inc. vs. Humphries, case no. 06-1431, the high court upheld an appellate court ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1866, also known as a "Section 1981″ claim for the law's place in the U.S. Code, should be interpreted to include retaliation claims, despite no language specifically relating to retaliation existing in the law.
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