Biased Job Transfer Suits Need Proof of Harm, Justices Rule (1)

Federal anti-discrimination law doesn’t always bar employers from transferring workers or denying their transfer requests based on their race, sex, religion, or other protected category, the US Supreme Court held.

The justices ruled unanimously on Wednesday that workers can sue employers over allegedly biased transfer decisions as long as they show they suffered some harm related to a job condition, such as a reduction in pay, though the harm need not be significant.

“To demand ‘significance’ is to add words—and significant words, as it were—to the statute Congress enacted,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court. “It is to impose ...