Supreme Court Rules for Business on Emotional-Distress Damages

The U.S. Supreme Court sided with a Texas physical therapy business in ruling against the availability of emotional-distress damages under federal anti-discrimination law.

In a 6-3 ruling that broke along ideological lines, the justices said such damages are not available in those cases.

Writing for the court, Chief Justice John Roberts said the analysis was “straightforward.” Because the anti-discrimination statutes are silent as to the availability of such damages, businesses could not have anticipated that they could be on the hook for them.

Civil-rights groups, disability organizations, and scholars backed damages while Republican-led states and the Chamber of Commerce argued ...