"This ruling brings a whole new range of behaviors under the umbrella of Title VII," says TIME correspondent Adam Cohen. "It's an important case." Yet it was a relatively easy decision for the unanimous court. "The court went out of its way not to turn this into a gay-rights case," says Cohen. "It's a simpler question of general applicability -- harassment is harassment."
Cohen thinks the floodgates may now be open. "This is going to have a huge impact on the workplace," he says. "Now that the court has given the green light here, we could be seeing a whole lot of lawsuits."