{"id":5868,"date":"2026-03-12T15:34:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:34:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/?p=5868"},"modified":"2026-03-12T15:34:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T19:34:21","slug":"the-third-circuit-may-have-just-eased-the-way-for-reverse-discrimination-claims-in-new-jersey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/the-third-circuit-may-have-just-eased-the-way-for-reverse-discrimination-claims-in-new-jersey.html","title":{"rendered":"The Third Circuit May Have Just Eased the Way for Reverse-Discrimination Claims in New Jersey"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Third Circuit has formally aligned itself with the U.S. Supreme Court&#8217;s recent decision making it easier for majority-group employees (i.e., men, heterosexuals, Caucasians, etc.) to pursue so-called &#8220;reverse discrimination&#8221; claims. In a decision authored by newly appointed Judge Emil Bove, the court held that plaintiffs who are members of majority groups are not required to establish &#8220;background circumstances&#8221; demonstrating their employer was inclined to discriminate against majority groups.<\/p>\n<p>Applying the Supreme Court&#8217;s reasoning in <em>Ames<\/em>, the court concluded that the language of the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination (NJLAD), like its federal counterpart, protects &#8220;any&#8221; individual from discrimination. The Third Circuit reasoned that employees who are not in the &#8220;minority&#8221; to satisfy a higher evidentiary standard would be inconsistent with that statutory language and with principles underlying federal anti-discrimination law. Because the NJLAD framework has historically tracked federal Title VII jurisprudence, the court treated <em>Ames<\/em> as controlling guidance when evaluating the state-law claim.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether New Jersey&#8217;s appellate courts will adopt the same approach, as they have not yet addressed the issue following <em>Ames<\/em>.<\/p>\n<div class=\"read_more_link\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lindabury.com\/firm\/insights\/the-third-circuit-may-have-just-eased-the-way-for-reverse-discrimination-claims-in-new-jersey.html\"  title=\"Continue Reading The Third Circuit May Have Just Eased the Way for Reverse-Discrimination Claims in New Jersey\" class=\"more-link\">Continue Reading \u203a<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Third Circuit has formally aligned itself with the U.S. Supreme Court&#8217;s recent decision making it easier for majority-group employees (i.e., men, heterosexuals, Caucasians, etc.) to pursue so-called &#8220;reverse discrimination&#8221; claims. In a decision authored by newly appointed Judge Emil Bove, the court held that plaintiffs who are members of majority groups are not required [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[463,467,65,442,247],"tags":[],"coauthors":[441,465],"class_list":["post-5868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-gozde-celik","category-celik","category-insights","category-weiner","category-labor-employment-insights"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Third Circuit May Have Just Eased the Way for Reverse-Discrimination Claims in New Jersey &#8212; March 12, 2026 &#8212; Lindabury, McCormick, Estabrook &amp; Cooper, P.C. 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