Supreme Court Unanimously Sides With Woman Who Says She Lost Job For Not Being Gay

The Supreme Court unanimously sided with a woman on Thursday who claimed her employer discriminated against her because she is straight.

The court held that members of majority groups should not have to face a “heightened evidentiary standard” to prove a discrimination claim.

“By establishing the same protections for every ‘individual’ —without regard to that individual’s membership in a minority or majority group—Congress left no room for courts to impose special requirements on majority-group plaintiffs alone,” Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson wrote in the majority opinion.

“The Sixth Circuit has implemented a rule that requires certain Title VII plaintiffs—those who are members of majority groups—to satisfy a heightened evidentiary standard in order to carry their burden under the first step of the McDonnell Douglas framework,” Jackson wrote. “We conclude that Title VII does not impose such a heightened standard on majority group plaintiffs.”