News & Analysis as of

Employment Litigation Disparate Treatment Sex Discrimination

Poyner Spruill LLP

Why Comparator Analysis Matters: A Key Fourth Circuit Ruling

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Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 generally prohibits covered employers from taking adverse actions against employees on the basis of race, sex, and other protected categories. Employee discipline is often the subject...more

Jones Day

U.S. Supreme Court Ends Heightened Evidentiary Hurdle for "Majority Group" Plaintiffs in Title VII Discrimination Cases

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On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court decided Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services and held that a "majority group" plaintiff in a Title VII case need not satisfy a heightened evidentiary burden to establish a prima-facie...more

McGlinchey Stafford

SCOTUS Ames Decision: Everyone’s in a “Protected Class”

McGlinchey Stafford on

In employment law, we traditionally think of discrimination as applying to minority groups: African Americans, women, homosexuals, or other legally protected groups. In analyzing discrimination claims, one of the first...more

Cole Schotz

U.S. Supreme Court Issues Reversal for Title VII “Reverse Discrimination” Claims

Cole Schotz on

On June 5, 2025, in a 9-0 opinion, the United States Supreme Court ruled in Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services that members of a “majority group” do not have to satisfy a heightened evidentiary standard to prevail on a...more

Bass, Berry & Sims PLC

Supreme Court – Same Burden of Proof Applies to All Plaintiffs in Title VII Discrimination Claims, Removing Greater Burden for...

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On June 5, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision, overruling the Sixth Circuit’s “background circumstances” rule in employment discrimination cases. The background circumstances rule required members of a...more

Pierce Atwood LLP

Supreme Court Clarifies Title VII Evidentiary Standards in “Reverse Discrimination” Cases, Removing Heightened Standard

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In Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Servs., the U.S. Supreme Court recently settled a circuit split and held that the Sixth Circuit’s “background circumstances” rule, which was applied only to plaintiffs from majority...more

Proskauer - Law and the Workplace

U.S. Supreme Court Holds Majority-Group Plaintiffs Are Not Subject to a Heightened Evidentiary Standard Under Title VII

On June 5, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion authored by Justice Jackson in Ames v. Ohio Dep’t of Youth Services, ruling that the “background circumstances” test—which applies a heighted...more

Kilpatrick

One Standard for All: SCOTUS Rejects Heightened Evidentiary Standard for Reverse Discrimination Claims

Kilpatrick on

On June 5, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued a unanimous opinion in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, decisively rejecting the so-called “background circumstances” rule that required majority-group...more

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP

Supreme Court Confirms Title VII’s Standard Is the Same for Majority and Minority-Group Plaintiffs

On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States unanimously held in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services that the standard for establishing a Title VII claim is the same for all individuals, regardless of whether...more

Poyner Spruill LLP

Supreme Court Rejects Requirement that Majority-Plaintiffs Must Satisfy Heightened Evidentiary Standard to Prevail Under Title VII

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On June 5, 2025, the Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated ruling in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, concluding that courts cannot require members of a majority group to satisfy a heightened evidentiary...more

Frantz Ward LLP

Higher Burden No More: Supreme Court Eliminates Higher Standard for Majority-Group Plaintiffs

Frantz Ward LLP on

In Ames v. Ohio Dept. of Youth Services, the Supreme Court eliminated the higher standard majority-group plaintiffs had to meet in Title VII discrimination cases. Traditionally, a Title VII plaintiff must show they are a...more

Goldberg Segalla

Supreme Court: Plaintiffs Claiming Reverse Discrimination Not Required to Meet Heightened Evidentiary Burden

Goldberg Segalla on

The U.S. Supreme Court on June 5 rendered an opinion in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services (Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, 605 U.S. ___ (2025).), resolving a circuit split regarding the applicable standard...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

Bracewell LLP

Employees in the “Majority” Do Not Have Higher Burden When Proving Discrimination Says Unanimous Supreme Court

Bracewell LLP on

In a case filed by a heterosexual woman claiming she was discriminated against due to her sexual orientation, a unanimous United States Supreme Court held that she should not be required to meet a higher standard to prove...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Supreme Court Clarifies Discrimination Test in Unanimous Decision

Foley & Lardner LLP on

On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services unanimously ruled that a plaintiff bringing an action for employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act is entitled to...more

Baker Donelson

Leveling the Field: Supreme Court Nixes Extra Hurdles for Majority Plaintiffs in Title VII Cases

Baker Donelson on

On June 5, 2025, a unanimous Supreme Court in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services vacated a Sixth Circuit decision imposing an additional evidentiary hurdle on "majority-group" plaintiffs (e.g., Caucasian, male,...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

U.S. Supreme Court Reconciles Circuit Split Regarding Standard for “Reverse Discrimination” Claims

On June 5, 2025, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, rejecting the “background circumstances” requirement multiple circuit courts of appeals have applied to Title...more

Seyfarth Shaw LLP

Supreme Court Rejects Heightened Prima Facie “Background Circumstances” Test for Majority Group Plaintiffs

Seyfarth Shaw LLP on

In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court vacated the dismissal of a heterosexual woman’s Title VII claims, concluding that she was improperly subjected to a heightened prima facie standard that required her to show...more

Miller Canfield

No More Extra Hurdles: Court Strikes Down Title VII Bias Rule

Miller Canfield on

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discriminating against any individual based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. But does that protection apply equally to white, male, or...more

CDF Labor Law LLP

Employee Replaced by White Male Coupled With Employer’s Poor Investigation Fuels Disparate Treatment Claim

CDF Labor Law LLP on

In Lui v. DeJoy, the Ninth Circuit held that a woman of Chinese ethnicity’s demotion, when coupled with a white male replacing her position, gave rise to an inference of discrimination. The employer’s investigation into the...more

McAfee & Taft

Tenth Circuit rules hybrid ‘sex-plus-age’ claims permissible under Title VII

McAfee & Taft on

On July 21, 2020, the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals, the federal circuit court that covers Oklahoma, was the first circuit court to rule that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 permits “sex-plus-age” claims. The...more

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

Divergence in Pay Between Women and Men in Shared Parental Pay Is Not Discriminatory, UK Supreme Court Rules

An employer that refused to offer a discretionary pay enhancement to a male employee who had availed himself of the statutory right to take shared parental leave did not run afoul of sex discrimination rules or breach the...more

ArentFox Schiff

Second Circuit Holds Evidence of Equal Work for Unequal Pay Not Required for Title VII Compensation Claims

ArentFox Schiff on

The Second Circuit has held that employees who allege they were underpaid on the basis of their sex, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, are not required to first establish an Equal Pay Act claim but rather...more

Littler

NY Federal Court Significantly Limits Scope of Equal Pay Case

Littler on

For years, employment lawyers on both sides have disagreed on what is required to obtain class treatment in a Title VII discrimination case. ...more

Polsinelli

New York Court Rejects Class and Collective Certification in Nationwide Sex-Bias Action

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On November 30, 2018, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York determined that a company’s decentralized pay and promotion structure made the matter unfit for class and collective certification under...more

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