A US appeals court on Thursday revived a software engineer’s proposed class motion claiming Meta Platforms refused to rent him since it preferred to present jobs to foreign employees who’re paid less wages.
The San Francisco-based ninth US Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 ruling said that a Civil War-era law barring discrimination in contracts based on “alienage” extends to bias against US residents.
The choice reverses a California federal judge’s dismissal of a lawsuit by Purushothaman Rajaram, a naturalized US citizen who says Meta passes over American employees for jobs in favor of cheaper visa recipients.
![Meta headquarters](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/2022-editorial-use-3d-cgi-72110545.jpg?w=1024)
Rajaram is in search of to represent a category that features 1000’s of employees.
Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment. The corporate in court filings has denied wrongdoing and said Rajaram failed to point out that Meta intended to discriminate against U.S. employees.
Daniel Low, a lawyer for Rajaram, said that bias against U.S. residents is a big problem within the tech industry.
“We expect that this ruling will result in more lawsuits in search of to finish such discrimination,” Low said in an email.
The ninth Circuit had never before addressed whether the federal law, Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, provides protections from hiring discrimination for US residents.
![Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg](https://nypost.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/06/meta-founder-ceo-mark-zuckerberg-50006964_fb1219.jpg?w=1024)
The one other appeals court that has, the Recent Orleans-based fifth Circuit, said the law didn’t apply to US residents in a 1986 decision.
The split created by the ninth Circuit on Thursday raises the probabilities that the Supreme Court could hear the case if Meta appeals.
Conservative groups have increasingly cited Section 1981, which also bars race discrimination in contracts, in difficult firms’ diversity initiatives and the hiring of foreign visa employees.
Thursday’s decision may very well be a significant boon to plaintiffs in a growing variety of cases alleging bias against U.S. employees, at the least in California and the eight other states covered by the ninth Circuit. Unlike Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the federal law banning workplace discrimination, Section 1981 doesn’t cap the damages that plaintiffs can receive in the event that they win lawsuits, and it doesn’t require them to file complaints with government agencies before suing.