Author Archives: Laura Noble

The Supreme Court’s unanimous decision in Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services represents a clarification of the evidentiary framework required to establish a claim under Title VII at the summary judgment stage.  The Court definitively rejected the Sixth Circuit’s “background circumstances” rule, which required plaintiffs from majority groups to satisfy a heightened evidentiary standard to establish prima facie discrimination cases. In the  6th,7th, 8th, 10th and D.C. Circuits the “background circumstances” rule meant that a plaintiff had to make …
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