Supreme Court to hear Byron Allen’s $20 billion racial discrimination case against Comcast
The media mogul says this is about African American ownership of networks.
Byron Allen, Entertainment Studios CEO, received good news today about his $20 billion racial discrimination lawsuit against cable giant Comcast.
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Byron Allen, founder/CEO of Entertainment Studios, received good news today about his $20 billion lawsuit against cable giant Comcast.
The Supreme Court announced today that it would review the case in which Entertainment Studios asserts that Comcast’s refusal to award licenses for its channels amounts to a violation of section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act. The argument is that the decision to deny licensing to the African-American owned entity is a clear example of racial discrimination.
The announcement comes months after Allen’s lawsuit against Comcast and a separate $10 billion lawsuit against Charter Communications, the parent company of Spectrum, were given the green light to proceed by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.
The appellate judges ruled that “[even if racial animus was not the but-for cause of a defendant’s refusal to contract, a plaintiff can still prevail if she demonstrates that discriminatory intent was a factor in that decision.”
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As a result of today’s announcement, Byron Allen issued the following official statement:
“We have already prevailed in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and we are highly confident we will also prevail in the U.S. Supreme Court.
Today’s announcement from the U.S. Supreme Court is historic, and we are on the right side of history.
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Unfortunately, Comcast continues to mislead the American people and its subscribers. This case is NOT about African American-themed programming, but IS about African American OWNERSHIP of networks. Unfortunately, the networks Comcast refers to as ‘African American-owned’ are not WHOLLY-owned by African Americans, and did not get ANY carriage until I stood up and spoke out about this discrimination and economic exclusion.
Comcast — one of the biggest lobbyists in Washington, DC — will continue to lose this case, and the American people who stand against racial discrimination will win.”
Entertainment Studios is also the parent company of theGrio.com
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