WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Wednesday weighed how much protection Congress meant to give pregnant workers when they ask for a change in their usual duties.
The court tread somewhat gingerly through technical arguments in the case of Peggy Young, a former driver for United Parcel Service. She charges that the company violated federal law when it refused to temporarily change her duties after a doctor suggested that she not lift heavy packages.
Young was forced to take unpaid leave, and she says the company denied her accommodations that non-pregnant workers receive.
The case presents the court with questions about a changing American workplace and how far government and private businesses must go to accommodate the needs of women who work through their pregnancies and serve as the breadwinners for their families.
For the most part, those issues took a back seat to questions about punctuation and ambiguous language in the Pregnancy Discrimination Act of 1978.
It was unclear from the court’s questioning how the case would come out. Justice Elena Kagan seemed to be searching for a middle ground that would allow Young to continue her lawsuit with specific allegations about the company’s different treatment of workers.
Chief Justice John Roberts Jr. made brief comments, and Justice Anthony Kennedy’s questions were few. Justices Antonin Scalia and Samuel Alito Jr. seemed skeptical that the 1978 act offered the protection Young claimed.
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