Job Bias Claim Fails Under Extra Test for Heterosexual Workers

The Ohio Department of Youth Services defeated a woman’s appeal in her job discrimination lawsuit alleging she was denied promotion and demoted because she’s heterosexual.

The ruling Monday by the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit is notable for applying an additional “background circumstances” element to the worker’s sexual orientation bias claim under Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, because she’s not a member of the minority.

But one of the judges—although joining the ruling—criticized the continued use of the background-circumstances test by the Sixth Circuit and four other circuits as “a deep scratch across” the ...