Supreme Court Lowers Bar for Employees to Challenge Workplace Discrimination
The Supreme Court on Wednesday held that a female police sergeant could challenge her employer’s decision to transfer her to a different unit so it could replace her with a male sergeant, even though the transfer did not hurt her rank or pay. NTEU filed an amicus brief in the case in which we argued for precisely this outcome.

Interpreting the provision of civil rights law that applies to non-federal employees, the Court reasoned that an employee challenging discrimination need only show some employment-related injury—not, as the lower court required, a “significant” or “material” one. The provision that applies to federal employees already assumes that all discriminatory job transfers are significant enough to challenge. NTEU lent its support to the female sergeant in this case to emphasize that all employees—federal, state, local, and private—are entitled to broad protection from discrimination.