A split Ninth Circuit panel on Thursday reinstated a proposed class action alleging Facebook parent company Meta unlawfully favors visa holders when hiring, ruling that a Reconstruction-era civil rights law bars employers from discriminating against U.S. citizens.
Ninth Circuit Revives Meta Hiring Bias Suit : Case Background
In a published 2-1 decision, the panel reversed the dismissal of naturalized citizen Purushothaman Rajaram’s suit alleging Meta Platforms Inc. violated Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. Rajaram claimed in his May 2022 complaint that he was rejected for several jobs at Meta, which operates Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, despite being well-qualified for the positions he sought.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler tossed the suit in November 2022, ruling U.S. citizens weren’t a protected class under federal law. However, the panel majority stated Thursday that this was a faulty interpretation of Section 1981.
Ninth Circuit’s Rationale
“An employer that discriminates against United States citizens gives one class of people — noncitizens, or perhaps some subset of noncitizens — a greater right to make contracts than ‘white citizens,'” U.S. Circuit Judge Eric D. Miller wrote for the majority. “If some noncitizens have a greater right to make contracts than ‘white citizens,’ then it is not true that ‘(a)ll persons’ have the ‘same right’ to make contracts as ‘white citizens.'”
