A Supreme Court ruling that allows employees to file lawsuits under a Reconstruction Era civil rights law for claims of retaliation may expose employers to more severe judgments, according to employment practices liability experts.

"The cost of being found to have retaliated for claims of race discrimination may just have gone up," said Paul Mickey, a partner in the Washington office of Steptoe and Johnson LLP, following the May 27 ruling in CBOCS West Inc. vs. Humphries.

In its 7-2 ruling, the high court upheld an appellate court ruling that the Civil Rights Act of 1866, also known as "Section 1981″ (a reference to the law's place in the U.S. Code), should be interpreted to include retaliation claims in spite of the fact that no language specifically relating to retaliation exists in the law.

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