Employees disciplined for wearing face masks bearing the phrase “Black Lives Matter” had their claims dismissed. The appeals court confirmed that the allegations did not support a plausible inference that prohibiting employees from displaying that message was a pretext for racially discriminating against them.
Why This Is Important… The court was being asked to infer that the employer’s motive for targeting the display of the Black Lives Matter message by employees was to target individuals espousing the message — and that this targeting was because of the race of these individuals. The court refused, saying it could not infer racial discrimination based on factual allegations just as much in line with the non-discriminatory explanation that the employer wanted to prohibit the mass display of a controversial message in its stores by its employees.