Tractor Supply Boss’s ‘Being a Woman’ Remark Not Proof of Bias

Tractor Supply Co. doesn’t have to face trial on a fired employee’s claim that he was replaced as manager of an Arizona store because he is a man despite his boss’s allegedly directly discriminatory remark, the Ninth Circuit ruled.

Michael Kieffer lacked direct proof that supervisor Rob Hardy replaced him with assistant store manager Susan Tefft based on her sex, the appeals court said June 5 in an unpublished ruling.

Kieffer presented the testimony of a former co-worker, who said she overheard Hardy say he planned to give Kieffer’s job to Tefft because “Susan, being a woman, will do a ...