Ash v. Tyson

Anyone who thinks proving employment discrimination is easy has not read a lot of appellate opinions from the federal fourth circuit. In Ash v. Tyson Foods, after a jury verdict for plaintiffs, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the trial court's grant of a motion for judgement as a matter of law. Seems the court did not think that the term "boy" directed by a white supervisor to a black subordinate evidenced racial animus. A unanimous Supreme Court rejected the Fourth Circuit's rationale and remanded. In a lengthy, but unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit has rejected a second jury verdict in favor of plaintiffs. Essentially the court again found that the evidence proffered by plaintiffs was insufficient to support a jury verdict, despite 2 juries concluding otherwise. According to this newspaper report, the first jury was predominantly white and the second jury had only one black juror.