The Supreme Court Thursday revived the case of Marlean Ames, an Ohio woman, who claimed that she was denied of her promotion at a state agency because she is heterosexual. In a 9-0 ruling, the justices junked the lower court’s decision to reject Ames’ lawsuit against her employer — Ohio’s department of youth services. With the case revived, it would now again go to the lower courts. Ames claimed that she was denied a promotion because she is straight. A lesbian was hired for the job instead and Ames was demoted to a lower position with lower pay and a gay man took her previous role. When the case appeared in front of the US circuit court of appeals, the judges rejected Ames’s claims, saying that she needed to show evidence that those within a minority group had made the discriminatory decisions. Those who were in charge of hiring and demoting Ames were also straight and not gay. The state said Ames was demoted because new leadership in the agency wanted to restructure its operations to focus on sexual violence in the juvenile corrections system.But the Supreme Court was willing to put this reasoning to a test, with an appetite to rethink what “reverse discrimination” actually means.Ames has worked at the department since 2004, but the dispute arose after she began reporting to a lesbian woman in 2017. She was denied the promotion she sought two years later and demoted soon after that. She was at work on Thursday when the Supreme Court ruled.“We’re of course pleased that this is the end of quite a long journey for Ms. Ames,” said Xiao Wang, one of her lawyers. “This was a major legal hurdle in front of her. This is something she is incredibly pleased about.”
