The U.S. Supreme Court case CBOCS West, Inc. v. Hedrick G. Humphries (2007) revolved around the issue of retaliation against an employee for complaints about racial discrimination under section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, which guarantees all individuals equal rights to make and enforce contracts without respect to race. The plaintiff, Hedrick Humphries, a black associate manager at Cracker Barrel alleged that he was dismissed from his job because he complained about racially discriminatory practices in his workplace and also supported a fellow black worker's similar complaint against their employer - CBOCS West Inc., owner of Cracker Barrel restaurants chain. In its decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of Humphries by a vote of 7-2 stating that Section 1981 encompasses retaliation claims; thus allowing employees who face retribution for complaining about racial discrimination to sue their employers under this law.

In the dissenting opinion for CBOCS West, Inc. v. Hedrick G. Humphries, Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the majority's interpretation of 42 U.S.C §1981 was overly broad and not supported by its text or history. He contended that this statute only prohibits racial discrimination in making and enforcing contracts but does not cover retaliation claims as it lacks explicit language to do so unlike other federal anti-discrimination laws such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 which expressly forbids employer retaliation against employees who assert their rights under the law. Therefore, he believed that Humphries' claim should have been dismissed because §1981 did not provide a cause of action for retaliation.