Last year the Supreme Court severely limited workers’ ability to file discrimination claims. But in two rulings today, SCOTUS actually stands up for workers, stating that neither public nor private sector employees can be fired in retaliation for making age-or-race-based claims of discrimination.

I hope Scott will chime in with some expert legal commentary, but notable to me is that Justice Samuel Alito — who was oft-parodied as “Scalito” during his confirmation hearings — split from Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas to side with workers in both cases. Chief Justice John Roberts joined the minority only on the age discrimination case.

—Dana Goldstein

Dana Goldstein, a former associate editor and writer at the Prospect, comes from a family of public-school educators. She received the Spencer Fellowship in Education Journalism, a Schwarz Fellowship at the New America Foundation, and a Puffin Foundation Writing Fellowship at the Nation Institute. Her journalism is regularly featured in Slate, The Atlantic, The Nation, The Daily Beast, and other publications, and she is a staff writer at the Marshall Project.