October 8, 2019 10:55 a.m. 
Oregon’s U.S. Senator Ron Wyden joined a group of colleagues last week in filing an amicus brief in the United States Supreme Court case that will determine access to courts for victims of what he said is racial discrimination.
In November the Supreme Court will hear arguments in Comcast Corporation V. National Association of African American-Owned Media and Entertainment Studios Networks, Inc. A release from Wyden said the statute in question – 42 U.S.C. Section 1981 – was passed immediately after the Civil War as part of a broader effort to ensure that newly freed slaves enjoyed the same rights as other citizens. The amicus brief supports the Ninth Circuit’s interpretation of the statue to allow victims of race discrimination to allege that race was a motivating factor in a defendant’s refusal to enter into a contract, but not necessarily the sole cause of harm.
The release said Wyden and the other lawmakers argued that the structure and history of Section 1981 confirm that statute, by design, prohibits any racial discrimination in the making and enforcing of contracts, regardless of whether that discrimination is a “but-for” cause of the parties’ failure to enter into an agreement.
The group said the Court should hold that a person who is denied the right to contract to which she is entitled under Section 1981, need not plead or prove that race was a “but-for” cause of that denial. The release said to hold otherwise would fundamentally alter the statute that Congress passed in the aftermath of the Civil War to “prohibit all racially motivated deprivations of the rights enumerated in the statute”.
In addition to the members of Congress, a number of groups joined amicus briefs in support of Section 1981. That includes the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, the Anti-Defamation League, the National Urban League and several other organizations.