After more than three decades at GOJO Industries, Rodger Tullis was terminated in the summer of 2023. A woman more than 20 years younger replaced him as a sales vice president for the Akron-based manufacturer.
Tullis, who was 58 when his job was eliminated, claimed in a federal lawsuit filed in April his replacement had “far less qualifications, experience and accomplishments and little new business pioneered on her own.” He stated he was discriminated against for being an older man.
Thursday, the U.S. Supreme Court potentially made it easier for people like Tullis to claim discrimination. The justices unanimously struck down a requirement in Ohio and some other states that members of the majority meet a higher burden of proof to show discrimination.
The case was brought by an Akron-area woman who said she was passed over for a job at the Ohio Department of Youth Services because she was straight.
It will return to district court to determine whether Green resident Marlean Ames was improperly passed over for promotions, but the Supreme Court’s decision means there are no longer extra barriers for members of the majority, like Tullis, to claim they are being discriminated against.
The ruling could make so-called reverse discrimination cases easier to get through the courts. And although the Supreme Court’s decision was not related to national conversations about the value of diversity in workplaces, the case also highlights the fact that recently, members of the majority have increasingly maintained that they have been disadvantaged because of their race, gender, sexuality or other reasons related to their majority identity.
In addition to Tullis’ case locally, last month, 58-year-old Michael Haas, a captain in the Akron Fire Department, filed his own federal lawsuit claiming a younger Black woman was promoted to a district chief role that he said was denied to him because he is an older white man.
Not only are these cases becoming more common, said Tracy Thomas, the Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law at the University of Akron School of Law, they are becoming more successful.
She said that courts have become more accommodating of discrimination claims by members of the majority. The shift comes on the heels of a national political movement against equity and inclusion programs that Thomas said has been building for some time.
“When historically excluded groups begin to share that power, then power pushes back,” Thomas said. “They don’t see their own privilege or how it’s operating at other people’s expense.”
Reverse discrimination cases could become easier to win
Traditionally, members of a majority group have needed to show a higher burden of proof to succeed in a discrimination case, said Joan C. Williams, the director of the Equality Action Center and a distinguished professor of law emerita at the University of California School of Law, San Francisco.
The Ames case involving the Green resident asked the Supreme Court to strike down that precedent, making it easier for reverse discrimination cases to make it to court. Ed Gilbert, an Akron attorney who represented Ames, said she and others will still have to prove they were discriminated against in the workplace, but removing the additional burden of proof can help cases get over the hump to be heard.
“No matter who we are, we’re going to have one standard,” he said.
Williams called the case a “very, very, very well-financed far-right attack on civil rights legislation.”
“When we think of the national debate, civil rights laws have traditionally been used to level the playing field for people of color and women,” she said. “Age has not been at the center.”
“When historically excluded groups begin to share that power, then power pushes back. They don’t see their own privilege or how it’s operating at other people’s expense.”
Tracy Thomas, the Seiberling Chair of Constitutional Law at the University of Akron School of Law
The result, she said, is that conservatives who think women and people of color have been given “artificial advantages” have made a huge investment into such cases.
“So far, there’s been some success, but pretty modest success,” she said. “These are still hard suits to win.”
Gilbert said reverse discrimination cases will likely still face difficulties, but that Ames’ suit aimed to “level the field.”
Attorney: ‘There can be room for discrimination against the social majority’
In the Akron Fire Department case, Haas references a lawsuit the department settled a decade ago regarding firefighter promotions in which, he said, “the trial court determined that Akron was that unusual employer who discriminates against the majority.”
In that case, Howe v. City of Akron, the fire department agreed to pay $1.04 million in back pay, plus attorneys’ fees, because promotional exams for lieutenants adversely impacted Black applicants and promotional exams for captains adversely impacted white applicants. A jury in that case also found applicants over 40 were adversely affected.
Haas is represented by Brian Spitz, the managing partner of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm. Spitz said he wouldn’t specifically comment on Haas’ pending case except to say he felt “very strongly” that Haas would prevail.
But he said calling these cases reverse discrimination is a misnomer. All are race, gender or other discrimination claims, he said. The pushback against diversity, equity and inclusion programs has just made more members of the majority aware of the fact that discrimination laws may protect them as well.
“More people are being educated about the rights they may have as a Caucasian person, as a male, as a U.S.-born person,” Spitz said. “There can be room for discrimination against the social majority.”
Haas stated in his lawsuit that he was more qualified than Sierjie Lash, the younger Black woman who was promoted to district chief instead of him last year. He said in his suit that her race, age and gender were the only reasons she got the job and the only reason he didn’t get the promotion was that he was a white man in his late 50s.
‘Men doubled down on masculinity’ in 2024 election
Overall, men and boys are doing more poorly now than they have in other periods in American history, said Ronald F. Levant, a University of Akron emeritus professor of psychology who wrote the book “The Problem with Men.”
Levant said as women were learning to empower themselves, enter the workforce and gain financial independence, many men received the same lessons about masculinity they always had. Nothing, he said, was done to prepare them for a changing world.
Culturally, Levant said, that’s led to a backlash that was evident in the 2024 presidential election when “men doubled down on masculinity.” It culminated in a men’s rights movement that led many to believe “somebody stole your role; you have to take it back.”
“The election gave the message to men: ‘You don’t have to change,’” Levant said. “‘Double down on what you’re doing; we’re going to force those women back into the nursery and the kitchen.’”
Can those who were historically discriminated against discriminate in hiring?
Spitz said he doesn’t think anyone should be discriminated against for any reason, but he doesn’t believe members of minority groups are immune from engaging in discriminatory conduct. Groups that have been themselves discriminated against in the past, Spitz said, might be tempted to “close the ranks.” By doing so, he said, they could perform their own discriminatory actions in hiring.
In the GOJO suit, Tullis cites shifts in leadership that he said led to layoffs and involuntary retirements of older, male employees who were “more qualified, experienced and historically successful” in favor of workers who were younger or female.
In charts included with his lawsuit, Tullis said there were 17 vice president-level employees at GOJO who were men over 55 in 2020. By 2024, only one remained.
He also said between 2013 and 2024, there was a “dramatic shift in gender composition” at the vice president and higher level at GOJO, which makes Purell, hand soaps, sanitizers and other disinfectants. Female representation rose from 6% to 44%, while male representation dropped from 94% to 56%. The trend “accelerated sharply” after a new CEO, a woman, was appointed in 2020, the suit said.
Those numbers don’t prove anything in and of themselves, said Karen Adinolfi, a shareholder and firm general counsel at Roetzel & Andress. When a long-term employee leaves, she said, it’s not unusual to choose the best person to replace them, and the best person may not look the same as the person they’re replacing.
“It doesn’t mean there’s discrimination or discriminatory intent,” she said.
Thomas, the law school professor, agreed, saying that although the number of men and women was more equal, preference was still being given to the majority group.
She said, too, that men were more likely to be affected when older workers left their jobs because women make up a smaller portion of that workforce. Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that in 2023, 44% of men over 55 worked or were looking for work, while just 33% of women did the same.
Additionally, Thomas said there have been more layoffs in recent years, making the frequency of these cases somewhat of a new phenomenon. In the past, older workers were more likely to retire, reducing the need for companies to cut older employees.
DEI initiatives were designed to provide access to opportunity
In his suit, Tullis said he “realized early in his career that no one was going to hand him success. It wasn’t luck, favoritism, or privilege — it was on him to work hard to build a successful career.
“So, he did,” through dedication and perseverance, the suit said.
Thomas said Tullis’ framing of the case implied that only lucky or favored women were getting jobs like his. It’s part of a “historic backlash” to the removal of barriers that made it more difficult for minorities to enter — and succeed in — the workplace. Such changes are often presented as matters of fairness, she said.
“More people are being educated about the rights they may have as a Caucasian person, as a male, as a U.S.-born person. There can be room for discrimination against the social majority.”
Brian Spitz, the managing partner of Spitz, The Employee’s Law Firm
She said she’s concerned that because of the Ames ruling, some employers will overcorrect, and only hire or promote minority candidates if they’re exponentially more qualified than majority candidates — a dynamic minority candidates have long had to contend with to prove their worth. That, Thomas said, means the results of the case could be more problematic than the ruling itself suggests.
“Nobody likes the idea that decisions are not based on merit,” she said.
But Adinolfi said that’s how diversity, equity and inclusion programs are often perceived, as simply ways to diversify, as opposed to programs that help employers find the best candidate for a job.
She said while DEI has been “vilified” as a way to provide special opportunities to some but not others, in its “purest, most correct form, it’s not about quotas or headcount, it’s about providing access to equal opportunity.”
Diversity programs defended as way to expand candidate pool
In the current political climate, people who “probably felt some kind of way” about diversity programs but didn’t think they could speak out are now saying something, said Robert DeJournett, the president and CEO of the Black Chamber of Commerce — Summit County. DeJournett said the current presidential administration is pushing back against Black, Hispanic and LGBTQ stories and history.
“It’s all white male driven,” he said.
Gilbert said attacks on DEI programs are “a damn shame,” calling them ridiculous and ignorant.
DEI efforts aim to expand the pool of people who might be considered for jobs — people traditionally tend to hire and promote people who look like them, Adinolfi said.
In his suit, Tullis said he had an expectation that he would continue to work at GOJO, in part, because of those dynamics. He said Joe Kanfer, the chairman, then chairman emeritus, of GOJO, “repeatedly promised” Tullis that he would continue to be employed by the company until he was Kanfer’s age — then, 73. Tullis turned down other job offers based on that promise, he said.
Tullis did not respond to a phone call seeking comment, and his attorney, Dale Bernard, declined to comment on the case. A spokesperson for GOJO, Samantha Williams, said in an email that the company has “always tried to treat people well.”
“We deny the alleged claims and will fully defend ourselves through the legal process,” Williams said.
Will there be a rise in new discrimination lawsuits?
Adinolfi said she’s skeptical that there will be “an avalanche of new lawsuits” following the Ames decision, but the national moment presents a “perfect storm” for discrimination suits from members of the majority.
While there are nondiscriminatory reasons that employers could have made hiring decisions, Adinolfi said some lawsuits, like Haas’, might have anticipated the Ames ruling and filed to take advantage of the lighter standard to get to trial.
Gilbert said while there may be an initial spike in new discrimination filings by members of the majority, he doesn’t think it will last.
But Misty Beasley, the vice president and chief operating officer for the Black Chamber of Commerce — Summit County, said she thinks the attacks on DEI will mean lawsuits will continue apace. While the issues represent complex legal cases, Beasley said the national climate is not getting better.
As some women have begun to earn more than their husbands, white, middle-class men have been “feeling the push,” Thomas said. At the same time, she said, President Donald Trump’s dismissal of military and federal agency leaders who are primarily women and people of color “is clearly modeling this is OK.”
“It gives credence, a comfort level, to making these claims,” she said.
In these cases, though, as with other employment discrimination suits, Thomas said the issues are often very personal. Levant said job losses for men, who often identify with their work, can be disorienting.
With the Ames decision, the justices clarified that there is no difference in what people need to show to prove discrimination as a member of the majority or the minority, attorneys said.
“It’s just saying it’s the same test for everybody; nothing special, nothing extra,” Thomas said. “You have to show motive. That’s still going to be the hard thing.”
The playing field has never been level, DeJournett said, but now that those who are used to being in charge are “losing that grip,” there’s a greater push from those accustomed to power to take some of it back.
“Everything is not equal after 400 years of oppression,” DeJournett said. “You have people who have a head start. It’s no fault of those who have started late.”
