FedEx Screener to Get Race Bias Trial Over Firing for Missed Gun

FedEx Corp. must defend at trial its explanation that it fired a Black security officer for missing a gun as it was loaded onto a plane, not because of his race, the Western District of Tennessee ruled.

The court cited Climmons Jones’ evidence that a white security officer engaged in similar misconduct on two occasions but kept his job. That proof, if credited by a jury, would establish a prima facie case of race discrimination under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and could refute as pretext the company’s justification for Jones’ firing, the court said Wednesday.

The ...