A Rare Supreme Case Where They Reject Bush Arguments

A unanimous Supreme Court made it significantly easier today for workers to win discrimination suits against their employers in cases where race, sex, religion or national origin is one factor among others in a dismissal or other adverse job action.

Beyond the decision's impact on civil rights litigation, an effect that could be substantial, the case was notable for the court's unanimous rejection of the position argued by the Bush administration. The administration had urged the court to adhere to its direct-evidence requirement, arguing that Congress in 1991 intended to overturn other aspects of the 1989 decision, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, but not the evidentiary standard.

Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who formulated the direct-evidence standard in her separate opinion in the 1989 case, wrote a concurring opinion today. She said that while she still believed that her original view accurately reflected what was then the state of the law, the result today correctly reflected the change that Congress made in 1991.

The unanimity of the ruling today, along with the fact that the appeals courts other than the Ninth Circuit were still requiring direct evidence, "illustrates how much more conservative the lower courts are these days than the Supreme Court," Eric Schnapper, a law professor at the University of Washington who helped represent Ms. Costa, said in an interview.