SCOTUS Sides With Straight Woman in Workplace 'Reverse Discrimination' Case
The Facts
- The U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS) voted unanimously on Thursday in favor of a straight woman, ruling that she was discriminated against by her gay boss, overturning a standard used by some courts requiring claims of discrimination against a majority group to pass a "background circumstances" test.
- Marlean Ames, who has worked at the Ohio Department of Youth Services for 20 years, claimed that her boss promoted a gay woman over her, suggested that she retire, and demoted her with a pay cut, with her old position then going to another gay employee.
- In 20 states, courts deciding discrimination claims against a member of a majority group under the Civil Rights Act of 1964 impose a requirement that the claimant prove that there were "background circumstances" at play, such as statistical evidence of discrimination, or that an LGBTQ+ person had the final say in hiring.
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The Spin
Right narrative
This ruling was entirely correct and removed an unnecessary hurdle for discrimination claimants. The imposition of an added standard for a certain class of sexual identities was blatantly discriminatory, creating a two-tiered justice system. No one is "more equal" than others under the law, and the court should not try to be an arbiter of identity in these matters. All that is asked is that the law be applied fairly.
Left narrative
Racism, sexism, and homophobia are all still deeply entrenched in the U.S., and the naive colorblind dogma does not take into account the fact that discrimination against minorities far outweighs the rare cases against majority groups. Institutions also need to be protected from Trump-motivated bad actors who attack diversity initiatives using such claims as a cudgel, as this ruling now opens the floodgates.
Metaculus Prediction
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