Supreme Court unanimously rules “reverse” discrimination is discrimination

SCOTUS Blog reports:

The Supreme Court on Thursday sent the case of an Ohio woman who contends that she was the victim of reverse discrimination back to the lower courts. In a unanimous ruling by Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the justices agreed that a federal appeals court in Cincinnati was wrong to impose a higher bar for the case brought by Marlean Ames to move forward than if Ames had been a member of a minority group. 

Note this was a 9-0 decision, and written by one of the liberal Justices.

The United States Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit threw out Ames’s sexual orientation claim. Because Ames is straight, the court of appeals explained, her claim could not go forward unless she could show “background circumstances” to support her allegations of reverse discrimination – for example, evidence that a member of a minority group made the allegedly discriminatory decision or showing a pattern of discrimination against members of a majority group.

The Court of Appeals had effectively said that there is a higher bar for claims of “reverse” discrimination, where the plaintiff is in a majority group, not a minority group. The Supreme Court has said it is illegal to treat discrimination against members of a majority group, differently than discriminations against minorities.

A great ruling, and again this was a 9-0 decision. Hopefully NZ authorities might take note of this.