Washington ? The Supreme Court confronted the job safety fears of America’s graying workers on Wednesday in a case that asks whether older employees have the same legal clout as minorities in discrimination claims.

The justices, who have lifetime appointments, are being urged by companies to make age-bias suits tougher to prove. If the court does so, employers would have more leeway in cutting jobs.

The case turns on whether a 1967 law that bars on-the-job age bias allows lawsuits on grounds that an employer’s action had a disproportionate impact on older workers. Justices have already settled that impact suits are allowed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act, which bans discrimination based on a worker’s gender, religion or race.

Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said the court had a long history of racial discrimination when making that decision 30 years ago. She questioned whether there was similar evidence of bias against the elderly.

“There are subtle biases” against older workers, said John G. Crabtree, the attorney for the former Florida utility workers in the case.

The 1967 Age Discrimination in Employment Act covers about 70 million workers age 40 or older, nearly half the work force. Under the law, older workers may not be treated differently solely because of age.

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg noted Congress deliberately copied wording from the 1964 act in crafting the law to protect older Americans. She said it would be “unseemly” to interpret the identical words differently.