In the recently decided case U.S. Gross v. FBL Financial Services, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a plaintiff bringing an age discrimination case must prove that but for his age, the adverse job action at issue would not have happened.   Consequently, it’s no longer enough for a plaintiff to show that age discrimination was just a “motivating factor” or there was a “mixed motive.”  The decision makes it much easier for employers to win age bias cases as they are only liable for discriminatory conduct that actually causes an adverse action.

However, employers may not benefit from this ruling for long.  Congress is already talking about reversing it through legislation.