Justice Jackson unveils fiery dissent in discrimination case
Share this @internewscast.com

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve on the nation’s highest judicial body, delivered a speech at the 60th Anniversary of the 16th Street Baptist Church bombing on Friday, September 15, 2023, in Birmingham, Alabama (AP Photo/Butch Dill).

On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court chose not to hear the case of a Black adult entertainer from Texas, who claimed she and other Black women faced racial discrimination at two strip clubs in the Houston area. These clubs allegedly imposed quotas that limited the number of Black performers who could work simultaneously.

By a 7-2 decision, the justices rejected the request from Chanel Nicholson. They concluded that the timeline to file the lawsuit, which is four years, started in 2014 when she first encountered the alleged racial discrimination. The last reported instance in 2021 did not extend her eligibility to file, rendering her claim ineligible due to it being past the legal time limit.

The majority’s decision leaves in place a ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit which held that the later instances of alleged discrimination — not allowing Nicholson to work “if too many other Black performers were already present” at the clubs — were merely the “continued effects of prior instances of race-based exclusion and thus were not independently actionable.”

Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson penned a dissent — joined by Justice Sonia Sotomayor — in which she scolded the appellate court as well as her colleagues in the majority for allegedly ignoring unambiguous precedent regarding actionable cases of race discrimination in employment law.

“That holding flouts this Court’s clear precedents. We have long held that ‘each discrete discriminatory act starts a new clock for filing charges alleging that act,’ regardless of whether similar instances of discrimination have occurred in the past,” Jackson wrote. “Because the Fifth Circuit’s contrary ruling was patently erroneous, this Court should have granted Nicholson’s petition and summarily reversed the judgment. I respectfully dissent from the Court’s decision to do otherwise.”

Nicholson in 2021 filed the suit against the clubs Splendor and Cover Girls, both of which were owned and operated by the same individuals. The complaint alleged it was “well-known” that both clubs were instructed to “severely limit the total number of Black Dancers on their respective premises” at the direction of upper management.

She claimed that she was turned away from the clubs about three times per week “due to her race.”

According to the complaint, in November 2017, Nicholson said she attempted to work a shift at Cover Girls, but was “told by a manager that she could not perform because there were already ‘too many black girls’ in the club.” After a hiatus from dancing, she attempted to return to Splendor in August 2021 — while her contract with the club was still in effect — but a manager allegedly refused her entry, telling her they were “not taking any more black girls.”

The lower courts held that because Nicholson began being discriminated against when she began working at the clubs in 2014, and was denied access to the clubs for the same “discriminatory reason” in 2021, the later discrimination was not actionable because “nothing had changed.”

The 5th Circuit wrote that Nicholson’s “denial of access” to the club “on account of her race” in 2021 was “merely a continued effect of the first alleged discriminatory act that took place in 2014.”

Jackson, on the other hand, asserted that both instances of racial discrimination should be treated independent of previous discriminatory acts.

From the dissent:

The fact that Nicholson allegedly suffered similar acts of race discrimination in the past has no bearing on whether those two claims can proceed. As this Court has made abundantly clear, “the existence of past acts and the employee’s prior knowledge of their occurrence … does not bar employees from filing claims about related discrete acts so long as the acts are independently discriminatory.” Rather, “each discrete discriminatory act starts a new clock for filing charges alleging that act.”

That last point bears repeating plainly, in light of the Fifth Circuit’s obvious confusion: If the discrete act that is the subject of the plaintiff ’s discrimination complaint is itself discriminatory, and if it allegedly occurred within the statute of limitations period, then that discrimination claim is timely — full stop.”

The court’s decision, Jackson writes, effectively “inoculates” the clubs and their owners from recent discriminatory conduct based on their own “sustained discriminatory motivation.”

Share this @internewscast.com
You May Also Like

Original ‘Gone Girl’ Sherri Papini’s Strange Reversal: Insists on Kidnapping Story After Serving Time for Fake Abduction

Sherri Papini was jailed for admitting that her supposed 2016 kidnapping was…

Authorities Report Man Puts 3-Year-Old Girl into Coma Over Potty Training Dispute

The home where Amber Lee Leary”s daughter was allegedly beaten on June…

Teenager Faces Multiple Felony Charges in Connection with Alleged Incident Involving Minor

Staff report GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Jack William Cheves, 18, faces charges for…

Man Arrested in Connection with New York Child Sexual Battery Case

Staff report from Gainesville Police Department social media post GAINESVILLE, Fla. –…

Tragic Incident at McDonald’s: Employee Allegedly Kills Manager Following Dispute

Inset: Jennifer “Jamma” Harris, tragically stabbed by a coworker at a Michigan…

Authorities Report: Man Fatally Suffocates Mother by Applying Pressure on Her Neck

A South Dakota man murdered his own mother and then decapitated her,…

Suspect in Hit-and-Run Claims He Didn’t Stop Due to Fatigue: Police Report

Background: The intersection of Sunland Park Drive and Appaloosa Drive in Sunland…

Nurse Alters Plea in Unauthorized Foot Amputation Case

Background: Spring Valley Senior Living and Healthcare Campus in Spring Valley, Wisconsin…

Police Report: Man Allegedly Robs Friend Over PlayStation Purchase

Background: Bodycam footage of Nicholas Flores being arrested (Lee County Sheriff”s Office).…

Girlfriend of Bali bombing survivor has clinic targeted in arson attack

A Melbourne skin-care clinic that was firebombed overnight is owned by the…

Family of woman purportedly killed by roommate initiates lawsuit

Tamilore Odunsi (GoFundMe). The family of a Texas nursing student, who was…

E. Jean Carroll Wins Another Court Battle Against Trump

Left: E. Jean Carroll, a former magazine columnist, enters a vehicle outside…