On June 5, 2025, the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, No. 23-1039, reviving a lawsuit brought by a heterosexual female employee who alleged she was discriminated against by her employer in favor of less qualified gay candidates. The decision conclusively establishes that the evidentiary burden in so-called “reverse discrimination” cases is identical as in cases brought by members of minority race, gender, and sexual orientation groups.
Marlean Ames worked for the Ohio Department of Youth Services for 15 years, rising from executive secretary to Program Administrator. In 2019, Ms. Ames applied and interviewed for a newly created management position in the agency’s Office of Quality and Improvement, but the Department hired a lesbian instead. A few days later, Ms. Ames received word that, not only was she not getting the promotion she hoped for, but she was also being demoted to her original secretarial position and stripped of the pay raise that had accompanied her promotion. The agency then filled Ms. Ames vacant former role with a newly hired candidate, a gay man.
Ms. Ames sued the agency under Title VII, alleging she was denied the promotion and demoted because of her sexual orientation—heterosexual—but she lost at the trial court and again at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals. The federal appellate court concluded that Ms. Ames failed to meet her prima facie burden of proving discrimination because she had...
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