A U.S. appeals court on Thursday revived a class action lawsuit filed by software engineers who claim Meta Platforms refused to hire them in favor of giving jobs to lower-paid foreign workers.
The San Francisco-based 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 2-1 verdict He said a Civil War-era law banning contract discrimination on the basis of “foreignness” extends to prejudice against Americans.
The ruling overturns a California federal court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Purushothaman Rajaram, a naturalized U.S. citizen who claimed Mehta prioritized hiring cheaper visa holders over American workers.
Rajaram aims to represent a class that includes thousands of workers.
Mehta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and lawyers for Rajaram did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The company denied any wrongdoing in court filings and said Rajaram had failed to prove Mehta intended to discriminate against U.S. workers.
The Ninth Circuit has never previously addressed whether Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866, a federal law, provides protection for U.S. citizens from employment discrimination.
The only other appeals court to have upheld the law, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, said in a 1986 ruling that the law did not apply to U.S. citizens.
A split on the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday increases the likelihood that the Supreme Court will hear the case if Mehta appeals.
