“He alleges that Meta refused to hire him because it prefers to hire noncitizens holding H-1B visas to whom it can pay lower wages.”

💡 Establishes Meta’s alleged motive was cost savings through wage suppression, not legitimate skill shortages.

“An employer that discriminates against United States citizens gives one class of people—noncitizens, or perhaps some subset of noncitizens—a greater right to make contracts than white citizens.”

💡 The Ninth Circuit explains how favoring visa holders over citizens violates the equal-contract-rights guarantee.

“The problem with Meta’s position is that the same means the same. It does not mean at least as great as.”

💡 Court rejects Meta’s attempt to rewrite the statute to allow noncitizens more rights than citizens.

“Because the words of section 1981 are unambiguous, our sole function is to enforce the statute according to its clear terms.”

💡 The majority holds the statute clearly protects citizens, leaving no room for Meta’s narrow interpretation.

“Section 1981 protects the would-be contractor along with those who already have made contracts.”

💡 Clarifies that job applicants like Rajaram can sue even if never hired, as discrimination blocked contract formation.

“Section 16 of the 1870 Act was an exercise of Congress’s power under the recently ratified Fourteenth Amendment in response to California legislation restricting the rights of Chinese immigrants.”

💡 Shows Congress extended Section 1981 protections to all persons, not just citizens, to combat alienage discrimination.

“Meta insists that the observation that the statute protects all persons ducks the question presented by this appeal, which is not who can sue under Section 1981, but what plaintiffs can sue about.”

💡 Reveals Meta’s legal strategy: reframe the case as a technical parsing exercise rather than address fairness.

“It’s only natural to think that if Congress protected noncitizens then surely it must have protected citizens too.”

💡 Even the dissenting judge admits the moral appeal of protecting citizens, though he disagrees on statutory interpretation.

“Rajaram first applied in 2020; the district court dismissed in 2023; the Ninth Circuit revived the case in mid-2024.”

💡 Illustrates how procedural complexity buys corporations years of continued profitable misconduct.

“Our conclusion differs from that of the only other court of appeals to consider this issue.”

💡 The split with the Fifth Circuit signals years more litigation before the issue is finally resolved, prolonging harm.

“Discrimination against whites is racial discrimination, but (in America) discrimination against Americans can never be discrimination based on alienage.”

💡 The Fifth Circuit’s 1986 reasoning, now rejected by the Ninth Circuit, allowed companies to favor noncitizens over citizens.

“If white persons as well as nonwhite persons can sue to enforce that guarantee—a principle the McDonald Court considered explicitly set out in the text—then so too can citizens as well as noncitizens.”

💡 The Ninth Circuit extends Supreme Court logic on race discrimination to citizenship discrimination.

“Even this victory is provisional: the appellate court merely reversed dismissal and remanded for trial. No fines have been levied, no back pay ordered, no executive faced liability.”

💡 Workers must wait years more for any compensation, while Meta continues operating under the same practices.

“The text of Section 1981 is not as clear as the majority makes it out to be, and McDonald does nothing to resolve its ambiguity.”

💡 Shows the dissent views this as a close statutory question, not frivolous, but still denies protection to citizens.

“On several occasions between 2020 and 2022, he unsuccessfully applied to work at Meta Platforms, Inc.”

💡 Repeated rejections suggest not random hiring decisions but a pattern of excluding citizen applicants.