(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court’s ruling that had given the green light to comedian-turned-media entrepreneur Byron Allen’s $20 billion racial bias lawsuit against Comcast Corp that accused the cable television operator of discriminating against black-owned channels.
FILE PHOTO: Comedian and producer Byron Allen leaves the Supreme Court after it heard Comcast’s bid to evade a civil rights lawsuit he filed against the company, in Washington, U.S. November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Lawrence Hurley/File Photo
In the unanimous ruling, the nine justices sent the case back to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider whether Allen’s claims that his failure to land a deal for Comcast to carry channels that he owned was due to racial discrimination were enough to let the case proceed. Allen is black.
The justices said the 9th Circuit assessed Allen’s claims using the wrong test. “To prevail, a plaintiff must initially plead and ultimately prove that, but for race, it would not have suffered,” conservative Justice Neil Gorsuch, an appointee of President Donald Trump, wrote for the court.
Allen sued Comcast in 2015 in federal court in Los Angeles, making claims under the Civil Rights Act of 186