The Supreme Court’s rare moment of unanimity against a DEI rule, explained

On Thursday, the Supreme Court handed down a raft of mostly unanimous opinions, three of which reached a conservative outcome despite the fact that they were each written by Democratic justices. Sometimes, the law in a case is clear.

Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services, authored by Biden-appointed Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, was the first of these three cases. It involved a clearly illegal “background circumstances” rule. This rule imposes a slightly higher burden on members of majority groups — such as white people, straight people, or Christians — who allege workplace discrimination compared to members of minority groups who bring similar claims.

As Jackson writes in her opinion, this disparate treatment of majority-group plaintiffs is not allowed. She quotes the Supreme Court