BYRON ALLEN

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EXCLUSIVE: “All of this lack of economic inclusion, it’s giving a pathway to the other issues in our community,” Allen tells theGrio. Byron Allen’s $10 billion lawsuit against McDonald’s is one of accountability and the desire to create economic inclusion for the Black community. The media mogul — whose Entertainment Studios is the parent company of theGrio — put the fast-food giant on notice recently by filing suit for alleged racial discrimination.

Comcast settled a long-running a long-running racial discrimination dispute with black media mogul Byron Allen, agreeing to add three of Allen's channels to its cable packages. Allen sued Comcast for $20 billion in 2015 for refusing to carry seven of his networks, saying it was because of his race. The case made it to the Supreme Court, which in Marc h reversed a lower court ruling in favor of Allen. The Supreme Court said Allen had to show race was the decisive factor in Comcast's decision not to offer him a contract, not one of several factors. Comcast said it would put the full weight of our companys media resources behind highlighting Black voices and Black stories.

Allen's allies, including US Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris, and the NAACP, say the case could set civil rights plaintiffs back decades if he loses. According to court documents, Allen's team argues that Comcast carries "lesser-known, white owned" networks, like FitTV and the Outdoor Channel, but refused to carry Allen's channels even after his company took steps recommended by Comcast to secure a deal. Comcast claims its decision not to carry Allen's channels was based on business factors alone, including viewership, and had nothing to do with Allen's race, pointing out that it carries black-owned stations like Sean "Diddy" Combs' RevoltTV. Comcast appealed the Ninth Circuit's ruling to the Supreme Court, which held oral arguments Wednesday morning. Comcast issued a statement saying it was "optimistic" the court would eventually rule in its favor and refuted Allen's claims that the company is racist.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. Supreme Court justices on Wednesday expressed sympathy toward allowing comedian and producer Byron Allen to pursue his racial bias lawsuit accusing cable television operator Comcast Corp of discriminating against black-owned channels. 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. The case centers on whether a lawsuit like Allens can proceed to trial without showing that racial discrimination was the predominant cause of the denial. Entertainment Studios Networks sued in Los Angeles federal court, accusing certain cable companies including Comcast and Charter Communications Inc of violating the civil rights law. Allen pinned the rejections primarily on racial discrimination, accusing cable executives of giving insincere or invalid excuses and granting contracts to carry white-owned networks during the same period.

Supreme Court justices heard a major racial bias case Wednesday and struggled over whether to make it harder or easier for a black entrepreneur to sue and win a discrimination suit under the nations oldest civil rights law. That standard, if adopted, would make it far harder for civil rights plaintiffs to bring a discrimination lawsuit. In 2015, Allen sued Comcast and Charter Communications, alleging their refusal to carry his channels was due to racial bias. Circuit Court of Appeals revived both suits and cited the words of the Civil Rights Act of 1866. But to win his suit, he agreed, Allen would have show that he was turned down because of racial discrimination.

WASHINGTON A pivotal 19th-century civil rights law will be put to the test at the Supreme Court on Wednesday during oral arguments over a $20 billion racial discrimination suit filed against cable giant Comcast. Entertainment Studios hasn't proven that Comcast was motivated by Allen's race, and Comcast, which owns CNBC parent NBCUniversal, denies it. Even if the Supreme Court allows Allen to pursue his discrimination claim, proving discrimination before the lower courts could be a high bar. Kristen Clarke, president of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said in a statement that the case is "the most important civil rights case that will be heard by the Supreme Court this term." A spokesperson for Comcast said in a statement that the company was not trying to roll back civil rights protections.