It will now be easier for employees to file reverse discrimination lawsuits.
This stems from an initial lawsuit filed by Marlean Ames in 2020. As AFROTECH™ previously told you, she had been working at an Ohio government agency managing juvenile corrections until her position was given to a gay man the year before she filed her claim. Ames, a heterosexual white woman, also mentioned a promotion was given to another individual who was lesbian, a person she claims was less qualified. At the time, those from majority backgrounds — such as white, heterosexual, or male individuals — were required to present more evidence than minority individuals showing proof of discrimination in the workplace.
“Title VII aims to eradicate all discrimination in the workplace. But the background circumstances rule doesn’t do that, doesn’t eradicate discrimination,” Ames’ lawyer Xiao Wang
told Reuters. “It instructs courts to practice it by sorting individuals into
majority and minority groups based on their race, their sex or their protected characteristic” and applying an evidentiary presumption against plaintiffs “based solely on their being in a majority
group, however you define it.”
Wang added, “But that’s not consistent with the statute that tells us that we’re supposed to protect all individuals from individual discrimination based on the individual case.”
While a lower court did rule against Ames, the
lawsuit was escalated to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has unanimously ruled in her favor,
according to AP News. This means there will be less hurdles for the majority to prove discrimination was committed against them,
notes Signal Akron. The decision will also impact lawsuits in 20 states and the District of Columbia.
“By establishing the same protections for every ‘individual’ — without regard to that individual’s membership in a minority or majority group — Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote for the court, according to AP News.
