The Law: Decisions

> In refusing to hire Mrs. Ida Phillips as an assembly-line trainee in Orlando, Fla., the Martin Marietta Corp. explained that it did employ women, but not mothers of preschool-age children, presumably because of absenteeism. Last week, in its first such ruling, the Supreme Court unanimously declared that the company's policy violated the sex-equality provisions of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The court gave Martin Marietta one out: it can still try to prove that women like Mrs. Phillips are less able to do the job than men who have equally young children. Only in that...