Allegation: For years, the nation’s third-largest cable TV distributor declined to distribute TV networks operated by an African-American-owned company. Moreover, the cable distributor’s executives put off meetings, proffered disingenuous explanations for its refusal to do business, and told African-American protesters outside the distributor’s HQ “to get off welfare.” Ninth Circuit: If discriminatory intent played any role—even as a single factor among several—in the distributor’s decision not to carry the networks, then the distributor violated federal law. And while we’re here, that federal law does not violate the First Amendment.
