FILE PHOTO: Comedian and producer Byron Allen leaves the Supreme Court after it heard Comcast’s bid to evade a civil rights lawsuit he filed against the company, in Washington, U.S. November 13, 2019. REUTERS/Lawrence Hurley/File Photo
(Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court’s ruling that had given the green light to comedian-turned-media entrepreneur Byron Allen’s $20 billion racial bias lawsuit against Comcast Corp that accused the cable television operator of discriminating against black-owned channels.
In the ruling, the justices sent the case back to the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reconsider whether Allen’s claims that his failure to land a deal for Comcast to carry channels that he owned was due to racial discrimination were enough to let the case proceed. Allen is black.
Reporting by Will Dunham