Supreme Court: Job Bias Law Protects Workers Cooperating in Probes

The Supreme Court has ruled that workers who cooperate with internal investigations of retaliation by their employers are sheltered by federal laws prohibiting job discrimination.

In an opinion this week, the justices held that a longtime school system employee in Nashville, Tenn., can pursue a civil rights lawsuit over her firing.

The court voted unanimously to reverse the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’ ruling that the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act does not apply to employees who merely cooperate with an internal probe rather than complain on their own or take part in a formal investigation.