By Jess Bravin and Brent Kendall 

WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court on Monday raised hurdles for a black television producer alleging discrimination against Comcast Corp.

A federal-district court had dismissed the suit filed by Byron Allen, the African-American owner of Entertainment Studios Network. He alleged race discrimination was behind the cable television giant's refusal to carry channels produced by his company.

The lower court had found that Mr. Allen, who first gained fame as a host of the 1980s NBC reality show "Real People," hadn't alleged sufficient facts to demonstrate Comcast acted based on his race. The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco reinstated the suit, ruling that Mr. Allen need only show that race played "some role" in Comcast's decision.

The Supreme Court unanimously said the Ninth Circuit got it wrong and sent it back to the appeals court. The opinion, by Justice Neil Gorsuch, told the Ninth Circuit to review whether Mr. Allen's pleading showed he would have gotten the Comcast deal but for his race -- and, if not, to dismiss the suit.

"We are pleased the Supreme Court unanimously restored certainty on the standard to bring and prove civil rights claims," Comcast said in a statement.

"We are proud of our record on diversity and will not rest on this record. We will continue to look for ways to add even more innovative and diverse programming that appeals to our diverse viewership and continue our diversity and inclusion efforts across the company."

"Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has rendered a ruling that is harmful to the civil rights of millions of Americans," Mr. Allen said. "We will continue our fight by going to Congress and the presidential candidates to revise the statute to overcome this decision by the United States Supreme Court, which significantly diminishes our civil rights."

In a separate case emerging from the salvage of Blackbeard's flagship, Queen Anne's Revenge, the court -- again unanimously -- found that states are immune from copyright infringement suits.

The Revenge sank off Beaufort, N.C., in 1718 and lay there for nearly three centuries until a 1990s salvage operation brought her to the surface. To finance the project, the state of North Carolina, which owned the wreckage, allowed a private salvage company to sell documentary rights to a filmmaker, Frederick Allen.

After the North Carolina cultural affairs department posted video Mr. Allen had shot, the filmmaker sued the state for copyright infringement. The Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond, Va., dismissed the suit, finding the state had sovereign immunity from such claims. The Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Elena Kagan, agreed.

In a third case, a 7-2 court rejected the Trump administration's arguments that federal appeals courts had no authority to review the facts underlying deportation decisions for certain classes of immigrants.

The Fifth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans found that federal immigration law gave appellate courts no power to examine facts in a class of deportation cases involving immigrants who have committed certain aggravated felonies or drug offenses. The finding would effectively leave some deportation orders by the Board of Immigration Appeals, an arm of the Justice Department, beyond federal court review.

Justice Stephen Breyer, writing for the court, said the Fifth Circuit read the statute too narrowly and that on appeal the immigrants were entitled to judicial review of the board's application of undisputed facts to the relevant law.

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, dissented.

In other times, Monday's opinions would be an ordinary assortment for early spring, when the court typically begins to announce smaller rulings ahead of those in big cases that generally come in June.

But with the novel coronavirus pandemic forcing the justices to join other Americans in social distancing, the mechanics of Monday's release weren't exactly routine. Rather than the justices summarizing their opinions from the bench, the decisions were posted electronically on the court's website at five-minute intervals. They comprised the only scheduled public action on a day that was supposed to begin a two-week argument sitting.

The justices plan to continue to issue orders and opinions, but for now they have closed the court building to the public and will not be hearing oral arguments in pending cases. Monday's decisions marked the first time the court has issued opinions without taking the bench since its ruling in Bush v. Gore. The case -- heard and decided over the justices' winter break -- effectively decided the 2000 election.

Write to Jess Bravin at jess.bravin@wsj.com and Brent Kendall at brent.kendall@wsj.com

 

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 23, 2020 19:37 ET (23:37 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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