patrick.net

Google must face a class-action lawsuit brought by Republican attorney Harmeet K. Dhillon on behalf of the tech giant’s conservative employees, according to a California court.
Current and former Google employees say in a lawsuit that the company discriminates against non-progressives on the basis of their viewpoint, and against whites, Asians, and males on the basis of sex and race.

Google attempted to have the case dismissed. But a judge in California, where political discrimination is illegal, ruled against the company.

The case will now move to a legal process known as discovery — meaning that Google must provide Dhillon and other attorneys working on the case access to its internal documents.

This is potentially a huge problem for the tech giant, as previous leaks of internal documents and video have repeatedly exposed the company’s extreme political bias.

The case was sparked by the firing of James Damore in 2017 after he wrote an internal memo — subsequently leaked to the press by leftists within the company — calling for more political diversity at the company.

After Damore initiated legal proceedings, other former Google employees joined the class-action lawsuit. Damore has since exited the case and entered arbitration, but the case will still proceed on behalf of the other plaintiffs.

“This ruling is a significant step forward for all California workers, and sends notice to Silicon Valley that discrimination of any kind will not escape legal scrutiny,” said Dhillon in a statement. “It is illegal in California to discriminate against an employee for his or her legally protected characteristics, and we are excited to move forward with discovery into Google’s challenged employment practices that our clients allege discriminate on the basis of political orientation, race, and gender.”

Dhillon, whose lawsuit challenges one of the wealthiest and most powerful technology companies in the world, says her case has been made possible by small contributions from individual donors.