High Court: Fiancé Of Complaining Worker Protected From Retaliation

The Associated Press reported that the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that companies cannot fire people simply because they are in a relationship with other employees who complain of discrimination.

The plaintiff in the case was fired from a plant in Kentucky after his fiancee, who also worked at the company, filed a sex discrimination complaint.

While Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act also does not allow people who haven’t complained of discrimination to sue for retaliation, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote that the case clearly falls under the category of people who can sue for retaliation, as injuring him was the employer’s intended means of harming the plaintiff. ◆