Justice Stephen Breyer announced Thursday that he will retire from the U.S. Supreme Court after more than 27 years, leaving behind a legal legacy that includes notable decisions on labor and employment law.

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Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway Co. v. White

Justice Breyer authored another unanimous decision in 2006, this time broadening the reach of the anti-retaliation provision of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The ruling upheld a Sixth Circuit decision in favor of railroad worker Sheila White, who claimed she had been retaliated against when she was reassigned to less desirable job duties and later suspended after accusing her supervisor of making demeaning and inappropriate comments toward women.

Justice Breyer said the law’s prohibition on retaliation applies to actions that “could well dissuade a reasonable worker from making or supporting a charge of discrimination.”

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Nicholas Woodfield, who represents workers as principal and general counsel with the Employment Law Group PC, said the decision was significant because it cleared up a complicated circuit split in away that pushed the law in a worker-friendly direction.

“It’s not always that the Supreme Court comes down with a very clean win for employees,” Woodfield said. “That was more than just a delineation of what the law was, that was an employee, plaintiff-end win.”

Australian blood giant CSL Behring is facing allegations in a US court it terminated a senior female employee not long after a representative from the company’s human resources team asked her whether she thought the company “has a problem with women”.

Julia Grant, who spearheaded CSL’s vital dealings with Capitol Hill during the Trump administration as the company’s director of US healthcare policy and federal relations, claims she was “illegally” sacked in a company restructure after being subjected to gender discrimination.

The case has also lifted the lid on CSL’s dealings in Washington and includes allegations her boss Patrick Collins took over a key internal committee responsible for overseeing campaign contributions and then directed the contributions to Republican members of Congress and candidates without consultation. Ms. Grant alleges Mr. Collins did this to further his aspirations to run for Congress.

The pharma giant is defending the claim and describes Ms. Grant’s allegations as “baseless” but admits Mr. Collins told Ms. Grant that he was surprised he was not made redundant instead of her given it was his role that was eliminated in the restructure. It denies all other allegations made against Mr. Collins.