Top US court revives straight woman's 'reverse discrimination' case
The US Supreme Court on Thursday revived the lawsuit of a heterosexual Ohio woman who claims she was the victim of reverse discrimination because she was passed over twice for jobs for candidates who were gay.
In a unanimous 9-0 decision, the top court ruled that members of a majority group cannot be held to a higher evidentiary standard than minorities in pursuing a discrimination claim.
"The standard for proving disparate treatment... does not vary based on whether or not the plaintiff is a member of a majority group," said Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, who authored the opinion.
The case comes at a time when President Donald Trump and a number of major corporations are rolling back diversity, equity and inclusion programs intended to combat systemic inequalities faced by minorities.
It could potentially lead to a surge in the filing of "reverse discrimination" lawsuits around the country.
Marlean Ames, an employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services, had asked the court to revive a lawsuit she filed under the 1964 Civil Rights Act which bars discrimination on the basis of race, religion, sex or sexual orientation.
Ames, a heterosexual white woman, was appealing lower court decisions that rejected her discrimination suit on the basis that members of majority groups must meet a higher bar for proving workplace bias than minorities.
In its ruling, the US Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals said Ames had not established "background circumstances" showing that the Ohio state agency is "that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority."
The requirement that she present "background circumstances" is unconstitutional and being unfairly applied only to members of majority groups bringing job discrimination cases, Ames said.
The six conservative and three liberal justices on the Supreme Court agreed, sending Ames's case back down to lower courts for renewed consideration.
America First Legal Foundation, a group founded by Stephen Miller, who is now the White House deputy chief of staff, filed a brief with the court in support of Ames.
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The 10-page indictment — filed in Federal District Court in Nashville in May and unsealed Friday — might also be an effort to save face: Bringing Mr. Abrego Garcia back to face criminal charges may allow the White House to avoid a broader legal confrontation that was increasingly headed toward questions of whether Trump administration officials should be held in contempt of court. 'Abrego Garcia has landed in the United States to face justice,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a news conference in Washington. 'He was a smuggler of humans and children and women.' She added, 'This is what American justice looks like.' Two people familiar with the investigation said it made a significant leap forward when an imprisoned man recently came forward offering information about Mr. Abrego Garcia, but there was concern and disagreement among prosecutors about how to proceed. In recent weeks, a supervisor in the federal prosecutor's office in Nashville resigned over how the case was handled, these people said. Ms. Bondi went on to level accusations against Mr. Abrego Garcia that were not included in the indictment, claiming that co-conspirators told investigators he had helped smuggle 'minor children' and gang members during dozens of trips around the country. She linked him to more serious crimes, including murders and the abuse of women — even though he has only been charged in connection with smuggling. She also claimed, without providing evidence, that his seemingly law-abiding life in Maryland as a contractor, father and husband was a cover for a criminal activities spanning nine years. Ms. Bondi, who spearheaded the administration's public relations campaign to discredit him during the court battle, predicted he would be convicted and returned to El Salvador for imprisonment. The attorney general declined to say when the Tennessee investigation into Mr. Abrego Garcia was opened. His indictment was filed more than two weeks ago, on May 21, and unsealed Friday after he arrived in the United States. The deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, said he believed the indictment was likely to render moot the lawsuit brought by Mr. Abrego Garcia's family to force his release from Salvadoran custody. Mr. Abrego Garcia made an initial appearance in federal court in Nashville later Friday, and the government moved to hold him in custody. He was detained and is expected to return to court on June 13. Asked whether he had spoken directly with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to take steps to free Mr. Abrego Garcia, Mr. Trump demurred. 'I don't want to say that. But he's returned,' he said, adding: 'And he should have never had to be returned. You take a look at what's happened with him; you take a look at what they found in the grand jury and everywhere else.' Mr. Bukele, who had previously said he would not release Mr. Abrego Garcia, said on social media on Friday, 'We work with the Trump administration, and if they request the return of a gang member to face charges, of course we wouldn't refuse.' Mr. Abrego Garcia's lawyers said they welcomed their day in court and pointed out that the government's decision to return him to the United States undercut its longstanding efforts to keep him in El Salvador. 'Today's action proves what we've known all along — that the administration had the ability to bring him back and just refused to do so,' said Andrew Rossman, a lawyer for Mr. Abrego Garcia. 'It's now up to our judicial system to see that Mr. Abrego Garcia receives the due process that the Constitution guarantees to all persons.' Ama Frimpong, the legal director for CASA, an immigrant rights group based in Maryland, described the mixed feelings of Mr. Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura. She 'is of course very happy that her husband is back on U.S. soil, at least as far as we know,' Ms. Frimpong said, 'but of course, under very egregious and horrendous circumstances.' Even though the Trump administration has repeatedly accused Mr. Abrego Garcia of belonging to MS-13 — which has been designated as a terrorist organization — a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled in April that the defendant had been deprived of his rights by being wrongly deported. 'The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13,' the panel wrote. 'Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.' Since the start of the case, administration officials have sought to depict Mr. Abrego Garcia, a metal worker who has lived illegally in the United States without criminal charges for years, as a member of MS-13. The charges filed against him on Friday accused him of belonging to the gang and taking part in a conspiracy to 'transport thousands of undocumented aliens' across the United States. In court papers seeking his pretrial detention, prosecutors said Mr. Abrego Garcia had been part of a trafficking conspiracy and had played 'a significant role' in smuggling immigrants, including unaccompanied minors. If convicted, Mr. Abrego Garcia could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison for each person he transported, the papers said, a penalty that would go 'well beyond the remainder of the defendant's life.' Mr. Abrego Garcia had been in Salvadoran custody since March 15, when he was flown, along with scores of other migrants, into the hands of jailers at the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center, a notorious prison known as CECOT. He was later moved to another facility in El Salvador. For nearly three months, his lawyers have been trying every legal strategy to enforce court orders demanding that the Trump administration 'facilitate' his release from El Salvador. From the beginning of the case, officials have acknowledged that Mr. Abrego Garcia was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador in violation of a previous court order that expressly barred him being sent to the country. But the Justice Department, acting on behalf of the White House and the Department of Homeland Security, has not given an inch beyond that admission, saying only that if Mr. Abrego Garcia presented himself at the U.S. border, officials would 'facilitate' his re-entry to the country. Department lawyers have also spent weeks stonewalling an effort by Judge Paula Xinis, who is overseeing the case, to get answers to the question of what the White House has done, and planned to do, to seek Mr. Abrego Garcia's freedom. The administration's serial refusals to respond to inquiries about its own behavior in the case has so annoyed Judge Xinis that this week she allowed Mr. Abrego Garcia's lawyers to seek penalties against the government. According to the indictment, the case against Mr. Abrego Garcia dated to Nov. 30, 2022, when he was stopped for speeding by the Tennessee Highway Patrol on Interstate 40 East, in Putnam County. Officers determined that the Chevrolet Suburban he was driving had been altered with 'an aftermarket third row of seats designed to carry additional passengers,' the indictment said. It also noted that there were 'nine Hispanic males packed into the S.U.V.' Mr. Abrego Garcia told the officers that he and his passengers had been in St. Louis for the past two weeks doing construction work, according to the indictment. But a subsequent investigation, prosecutors said, revealed that Mr. Abrego Garcia's cellphone and license plate reader data showed that he had been in Texas that morning and nowhere near St. Louis for the past weeks. Moreover, the indictment said, none of the people in the vehicle 'had luggage or even tools consistent with construction work.' Prosecutors said that the traffic stop in Tennessee was not the first time that Mr. Abrego Garcia had engaged in alleged immigrant smuggling, which they said was his 'primary source of income.' They added that he had transported about '50 undocumented aliens' a month across the country for several years. Jazmine Ulloa and Annie Correal contributed reporting.
