In Rajaram v Meta Platforms, Inc. (2024), an employee sued Meta for giving a hiring preference to H1B visa holders over US Citizens. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeal held that section 42 USC 1981 prohibits employer from discriminating against United States citizens, because an employer that does so gives one class of people – noncitizens, or perhaps some group of noncitizens – a greater right to make contract than “white citizens”. The court relied in their decision, in part, on the Supreme Court case McDonald v Santa Fe Trail Transportation Co. (1976). In that case, white employees of a company were fired for theft, but a black employee charged with the same offense was not. The fired employees then successfully sued under section 1981.
The holdings in both of the above cases seems to be reasonable and consistent with the very idea that reverse discrimination is every bit as unlawful as a more conventional discrimination against employees who belong to historically marginalized groups. Reverse discrimination against whites or men, is and should be every bit as illegal as a discrimination against US citizens in hiring and employment privileges.
