Facebook Beats Lawsuit Charging Bias Against Hiring US Citizens

A federal court in Northern California dismissed a lawsuit by a tech worker accusing Facebook parent company Meta Inc. of favoring job applicants on temporary work visas.

US Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler wrotein a decision Thursday that a US citizen can’t bring a claim for citizenship discrimination under the Civil Rights Act.

Purushothaman Rajaram is a naturalized US citizen who applied for multiple positions at Facebook unsuccessfully. Rajaram sought class action status on behalf of all job applicants who were passed over by the company for candidates with temporary H-1B specialty occupation visas, claiming that he lost out on two positions at the company because of discriminatory hiring practices.

H-1B visas are especially popular in the tech industry. The program, which is capped at 85,000 slots annually, allows foreign employees to work in the US for up to three years with the option to renew for another three. The US Department of Justice accused Facebook in 2020 of discriminating against US workers by reserving thousands of positions for employees on H-1B visas; the company and DOJ reached a $14.5 million settlement last year.

Meta filed a motion to dismiss Rajaram’s lawsuit, arguing that the plaintiff lacked standing because US citizens aren’t a protected class under the Civil Rights Act. Although the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit hasn’t addressed the issue directly, other courts have found that discrimination against Americans can’t be considered discrimination based on alienage.

“Most courts hold that US citizens are not a protected class,” Beeler wrote. “The court follows this authority as persuasive.”

Rajaram is represented by Daniel Low, a partner at Kotchen & Low LLP. Low didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the decision.

The case is Purushothaman Rajaram v. Meta Platforms Inc., N.D. Cal., No. 3:22-cv-02920, lawsuit dismissed 11/10/22.