Marlean Ames has alleged she was wrongly passed over for promotion in favor of a lesbian and then demoted in favor of a gay man.

CLEVELAND, Ohio — In many ways, Marlean Ames’ lawsuit was fairly routine. The longtime employee of the Ohio Department of Youth Services said she was wrongly passed over for a promotion, demoted without an explanation from her bosses and lost out on some $40,000 a year.

The Supreme Court appeared virtually certain to side with an Ohio woman who lost a “reverse discrimination” suit against her employer when her gay boss declined to promote her, a decision that will likely make it easier for some White and straight employees to win similar claims.

The Supreme Court seems likely to side with an Ohio woman who claims she suffered sex discrimination in her employment because she is straight.

U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared to lean on Wednesday toward making it easier for people from "majority backgrounds," such as white or straight people, to pursue workplace discrimination claims, as they heard an appeal by an Ohio woman who claims she was denied a promotion and demoted because she is heterosexual.

Justices across the ideological spectrum and lawyers on both sides agreed that an appeals court erred in requiring members of majority groups to meet a heightened burden.

Marlean Ames, 60, an employee at Indian River Juvenile Correctional Facility, contends gay applicants were unfairly given promotions that she sought.

Chloe Miracle-Rutledge is a JURIST Supreme Court Correspondent and a 2L at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, DC. On Wednesday morning, I walked up to an unusually quiet Supreme Court