Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services

Marlean Ames (plaintiff), a heterosexual woman, began working for the Ohio Department of Youth Services (the agency) (defendant) in 2004. In 2019, Ames interviewed for a promotion to a management position, but the agency ultimately hired a lesbian woman for the position. Later, the agency demoted Ames and hired a gay man to fill Ames’s previous position. Ames sued the agency in federal district court in Ohio under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, asserting that the agency had denied her the management position and demoted her based on her sexual orientation. The district court analyzed Ames’s claim using the burden-shifting framework set forth in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, the first prong of which required Ames to make a prima facie showing that the agency had acted with a discriminatory motive. However, under Sixth Circuit precedent, because Ames was a member of a majority group (i.e., a heterosexual person), the court required Ames to make an additional showing of background circumstances to support a suspicion that the agency was an atypical employer that discriminated against the majority. The court found that Ames had not shown such background circumstances and thus had not met her burden. Accordingly, the court granted summary judgment for the agency. The court of appeals affirmed, and the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari to resolve a circuit split regarding whether majority-group plaintiffs must satisfy a higher evidentiary standard than minority-group plaintiffs.