Court rules in favour of woman who says she was passed over for a work promotion because of her heterosexuality.
The United States Supreme Court has issued a ruling that will make it easier for people to claim workplace “reverse” discrimination based on identities such as being white or heterosexual, in a victory for conservatives who have long pushed back against laws that protect minorities.
The nation’s highest court ruled unanimously on Thursday in favour of an Ohio woman named Marlean Ames, who said she was passed over for a promotion at work because she is straight.
The decision reverses a previous ruling by a lower court stating that plaintiffs from some majority groups must show “background circumstances” to demonstrate that their employer is “that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority”, rather than minority groups that have historically faced discrimination in the US.
“We conclude that Title VII does not impose such a heightened standard on majority group plaintiffs,” wrote liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. “Therefore, the judgment below is vacated, and the case is remanded for application of the proper prima facie standard.”
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The Thursday ruling could affect lawsuits in 20 different states and the District of Columbia, striking a blow to a previous practice wherein members of groups who have not historically been on the receiving end of discriminatory practices had to clear a higher bar when pushing claims of workplace civil rights violations.
Conservatives in the US have argued for years that steps to address the legacy of discrimination against ethnic and racial minorities, such as considering race in academic admission or job recruitment, themselves constitute a form of discrimination against white people.
Ames previously stated that she was “pushed aside” at her job at the Ohio Department of Youth Services in favour of LGBTQ employees.
She sued for damages in 2020, alleging that her rights under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, originally passed during the civil rights struggle for Black people in the US, had been violated.
The state’s Republican Attorney General Dave Yost defended the department’s actions in court papers, stating that department leaders had said Ames lacked the vision and leadership for the job for which she was rejected.