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Civil Rights Act Evidentiary Standards

Smith Anderson

SCOTUS Rejects Extra Burden for Majority-Group Plaintiffs in Title VII Cases

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On June 5, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, significantly impacting how majority-group discrimination claims are evaluated under Title VII of the...more

Bricker Graydon LLP

Supreme Court Rejects “Background Circumstances” Requirement for Title VII Discrimination Claims in Ames v. Ohio Department of...

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In a unanimous decision issued on June 5, 2025, the United States Supreme Court held the “background circumstances” requirement imposed by some lower courts in what are often referred to as “reverse discrimination” claims is...more

Ballard Spahr LLP

Reverse Discrimination Lawsuits Are So Back

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On June 5, 2025, a unanimous Supreme Court eliminated the requirement for a higher evidentiary standard for majority plaintiffs (white, male, heterosexual, etc.) who claim discrimination under Title VII (also known as reverse...more

Miller Canfield

Supreme Court: Stop Holding Disabled Students to a Higher Bar

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Must a student with a disability prove that their school acted in “bad faith” to win a discrimination case? Until now, courts in some parts of the country said yes, requiring disabled students to meet a higher standard than...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Supreme Court Rejects Elevated Standard for Proving Reverse Discrimination Claims

The U.S. Supreme Court unanimously rejected use of a special legal test for plaintiffs to prove illegal bias in reverse discrimination cases. ...more

Bowditch & Dewey

Supreme Court Clarifies Law on So-called “Reverse Discrimination” Claims

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On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court settled a longtime debate among federal appellate courts regarding so-called “reverse discrimination” claims that are brought by employees under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Supreme Court Rejects Heightened Evidentiary Burden For “Reverse Discrimination” Title VII Plaintiffs

On June 5, 2025, in a unanimous ruling authored by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the U.S. Supreme Court revived the employment discrimination claims of an Ohio woman who contends that she was the victim of “reverse...more

Venable LLP

The Supreme Court Says Employers Can Be Liable for Discriminating Against Majority Groups

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Earlier this month, in a long-awaited ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with a straight white woman who claimed to have lost out on two positions to LGBT candidates and was also demoted in favor of them. ...more

Ice Miller

U.S. Supreme Court’s Ruling Clarifies Standard for Reverse Discrimination Under Title VII

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The U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled in favor of an employee claiming that she was a victim of reverse discrimination after she was allegedly denied a promotion because she is heterosexual. In the underlying case, the...more

Genova Burns LLC

A Unanimous Signal: Supreme Court Rejects Extra Hurdles For Reverse Discrimination Claims In Ames v. Ohio Department Of Youth...

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Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, 605 U.S. ___ (2025). The case addressed whether plaintiffs from majority groups must meet a higher evidentiary...more

Holland & Knight LLP

U.S. Supreme Court Holds No Higher Standard for "Majority Group" Discrimination Claims

Holland & Knight LLP on

The U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on June 5, 2025, resolving a U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit split in the matter of Ames v. Ohio Dep't. of Youth Servs., 605 U.S. ____ (2025). The Supreme Court...more

Gordon Rees Scully Mansukhani

SCOTUS Unanimously Rejects Heightened Burden for Majority-Group Discrimination Claims

On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled in favor of petitioner, Marlean Ames, a heterosexual woman, who commenced a reverse discrimination case against her former employer, the Ohio Department of Youth...more

Stark & Stark

United States Supreme Court Holds Same Standard Must be Applied to Reverse Discrimination Cases as Other Forms of Discrimination

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On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court unanimously held that a Plaintiff alleging reverse discrimination under Title VII be held to the same standard as if they belonged to another suspect class. Ames v. Ohio Dep’t of Youth...more

Williams Mullen

Supreme Court Rejects Heightened Evidentiary Standards for So-Called “Reverse Discrimination” Claims

Williams Mullen on

On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously held that plaintiffs bringing discrimination claims under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (Title VII) cannot be required to satisfy a heightened evidentiary...more

Benesch

Supreme Court Rejects Additional Burdens for Reverse Discrimination Plaintiffs

Benesch on

On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously agreed that reverse discrimination plaintiffs are not required to produce additional evidence at the outset of their case to proceed with their claims. Ames v. Ohio...more

Dorsey & Whitney LLP

Justices Reject Higher Standard for “Reverse Discrimination” Claims

Dorsey & Whitney LLP on

The United States Supreme Court has held that the evidentiary standards for “reverse discrimination” claims under federal employment law must be the same as those set for claims brought by members of minority groups....more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Supreme Court Expresses Skepticism Over Higher Burden in Majority Discrimination Cases

The Supreme Court of the United States recently heard oral arguments in a case to determine whether employees who are part of a majority group must meet a higher standard to prove discrimination....more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Setting Evidentiary Standards: What Employers Need to Know After Puerto Rico Supreme Court’s Employment Discrimination Ruling

Jackson Lewis P.C. on

The Puerto Rico Supreme Court has issued an opinion interpreting, for the first time, several provisions of the Puerto Rico Labor Reform Act of 2017, specifically holding the McDonnell Douglas burden-shifting framework...more

Parker Poe Adams & Bernstein LLP

Supreme Court to Hear Reverse Discrimination Appeal

A few months ago, we published an alert noting that the U.S. Supreme Court had agreed to hear Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services. The case addresses whether plaintiffs alleging reverse discrimination under Title VII...more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

Supreme Court to Hear Heterosexual Woman’s Reverse Discrimination Case

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear a case in which a female heterosexual employee claimed an Ohio state agency discriminated against her in favor of employees who identify as LGBTQ+. The case, Ames v....more

Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart,...

DEI Under Scrutiny, Part IV: Could the ‘Background Circumstances’ Rule for Discrimination Be Primed for Supreme Court Review?

With high-profile challenges to employer diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and “reverse discrimination” claims on the rise, a case reinforcing the circuit split over whether plaintiffs from a “majority” group...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

The Italian Job: Fifth Circuit Confirms Pleading Standard for National Origin Discrimination Claim

Employment law is full of burden-shifting, prima facie standards and evidentiary hurdles. Sometimes, even the courts apply the wrong standard at the wrong stage of a case. That appears to be what happened in the case of...more

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