Elon Musk Is Spiraling Over Trump Dumping Him on Live TV

The Supreme Court made it easier Thursday to file lawsuits over “reverse discrimination.”

The nation’s highest judiciary sided with an Ohio woman who claimed that she had been passed over for a job and was subsequently demoted because she was straight. Marlean Ames, a 20-year employee at the Ohio Department of Youth Services, claimed that the promotion and the job she previously held were both given to LGBTQ people.

Ames had previously lost her case in trial court and the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

In siding with Ames, the court unanimously struck down a standard that had previously required individuals identifying as part of a majority group—such as being white, male, or heterosexual—to face a higher bar in proving discrimination.

The ruling will affect cases in 20 states and the District of Columbia. The Sixth Circuit was one of the courts that had tasked people like Ames with showing “background circumstances” as proof, such as an internal pattern of discrimination against her at her organization. Ames did not provide any circumstances to the appeals court.

In its opinion, the Supreme Court decided that the Sixth Circuit’s “background circumstances” requirement “cannot be squared with the text of Title VII or the Court’s precedents,” since the statute’s “disparate-treatment provision draws no distinctions between majority-group plaintiffs and minority-group plaintiffs.” Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made it illegal for American employers to discriminate against employees or potential employees on the basis of their “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”

“The provision focuses on individuals rather than groups, barring discrimination against ‘any individual’ because of protected characteristics,” the court wrote. “Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone.”

In its opinion, the nation’s highest judiciary vacated the lower court’s ruling, remanding the case to be re-deliberated under the new standard.

In 2019, Ames had applied to be bureau chief of the Ohio agency. She was interviewed by two supervisors who did not hire her for it. Two more applicants for the role were also turned away. Eight months later, Ames claimed that one of the supervisors had hired a lesbian woman she knew personally to fill the role.

Ames was later removed from her post as program administrator and given the option of being demoted to executive secretary or leave the agency altogether. She chose the demotion, and was replaced by a gay man. Ames claimed that she had been discriminated against as both of the hiring supervisors were lesbian women.

This story has been updated.