Title VII Race Provisions Cover Anti-Jewish Discrimination

In Bonadona v. Louisiana College, (WD LA, July 13, 2018), a Louisiana federal magistrate judge held that Title VII's ban on racial discrimination in employment is broad enough to cover discrimination based on a person's Jewish heritage. At issue is a Title VII suit by an applicant for a coaching position who was not hired because of his Jewish heritage.  Plaintiff was born to a Jewish mother but converted to Christianity in college.The court said in part:

America is no stranger to anti-Semitism, which is often rooted in prejudice against a person based on his heritage/ethnicity without regard to the person’s particular religious beliefs. Jewish citizens have been excluded from certain clubs or neighborhoods, and they have been denied jobs and other opportunities based on the fact that they were Jewish, with no particular concern as to a given individual’s religious leanings. Thus, they have been treated like a racial or ethnic group that Title VII was designed to protect from employment discrimination based on membership in that group.

AP reports on the decision.