Catherwood LibraryILR School

In a major victory for disabled workers in California, the state's Supreme Court ruled unanimously yesterday that under state law workers are protected against disability-based discrimination so long as their condition restricts their participation in a major life activity. This standard offers greater protection to workers than federal law which only prohibits discrimination based on conditions that "substantially" limit participation in major life activities---a standard under which the only conditions protected against discrimination are often those serious enough to make working all but impossible. The court not only cleared up confusion over the scope of the protections resulting from conflicting interpretations in lower courts, it also extended the chronological coverage of the broader protections by ruling that a broad interpretation held even before the passage of clarifying legislation in 2001.