O'Connor v. Consolidated Coin Caterers Corp.

In O'Connor v. Consolidated Coin Caterers Corp., 517 U.S. 308, 311 (1996), the U.S. Supreme Court held that a plaintiff alleging discrimination must be a member of a protected class and allege that he suffered from discriminatory treatment. Such allegations make out a prima facie case of race discrimination and the burden then shifts to the defendant to articulate some legitimate non-discriminatory reason for its action.

Once defendant meets its burden, then the burden shifts back to plaintiff to prove that defendant's proffered reason was mere pretext and that race was the real reason for the discrimination.

The facts of this case concerned alleged age discrimination and this decision was written by Justice Antonin Scalia for a unanimous court in holding that replacement of a worker by another worker insignificantly younger did not give rise to an inference of discrimination. This decision reversed the Fourth Circuit decision to the contrary.