Supreme Court 2020s: on Jobs

Ketanji Brown Jackson: Follows precedent in workplace racial discrimination cases

She ruled in favor of plaintiffs in only 3 of the cases. "Plaintiffs in employment discrimination cases lose a lot; they are notoriously hard to win," said an employment law expert.

In one case, Jackson declined to certify racial discrimination claims brought by two Black workers against defense contractor Lockheed Martin Corp as a class action that would have involved potentially more than 5,000 employees.

Jackson's rulings show that she followed Supreme Court precedent in analyzing cases brought under the federal law that prohibits employment discrimination, a claim that can be difficult to prove because plaintiffs rarely have direct evidence of bias.

Ketanji Brown Jackson: Lengthy discovery needed in employment discrimination cases

Ketanji Brown Jackson: Reversed narrowing of federal collective bargaining rules

ACLU: No discrimination for sexual orientation or gender identity

The transgender case ruled on by the court involved Aimee Stephens, who was dismissed from her job at a Michigan funeral home two weeks after she told them she was transgender. Her boss explained she failed to follow the dress code.

The ACLU told the court hers was a clear case of sex discrimination, because if she had been assigned female sex at birth she would not have been fired for wanting to come to work dressed as a woman. Instead Stephens was assigned male sex and was fired because she failed to conform to the sex stereotypes of her employer, it argued.

The Trump administration had urged the court to rule that Title VII does not cover cases like these.