{"id":696869,"date":"2026-05-27T01:41:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:41:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696869\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T01:41:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T01:41:11","slug":"supreme-court-denies-nfls-bid-to-keep-former-dolphins-coach-brian-flores-discrimination-lawsuit-from-heading-to-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/696869\/","title":{"rendered":"Supreme Court denies NFL\u2019s bid to keep former Dolphins coach Brian Flores&#8217; discrimination lawsuit from heading to court"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Supreme Court denied an appeal from the NFL Tuesday to keep <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2022\/02\/01\/brian-flores-sues-nfl-for-discrimination-after-sham-giants-interview\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">ex-Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores\u2019 discrimination lawsuit <\/a>against the league from going to trial.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The NFL had asked the high court to instead allow the case to be <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/08\/14\/sports\/nfl-can-be-put-on-trial-over-brian-flores-discrimination-claims\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">handled through arbitration<\/a>, but the justices refused to intervene.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/16\/us-news\/supreme-court-sotomayor-regrets-hurtful-remarks-aimed-at-kavanaugh\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Justice Brett Kavanaugh<\/a> dissented from the decision. He was the only jurist listed as having gone against the majority ruling to not hear the case.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39495635\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/united-states-supreme-court-building-126755788_d4d699.jpg\" alt=\"The front facade of the US Supreme Court building.\" class=\"wp-image-39495635\"  \/>The Supreme Court refused to take up the NFL\u2019s appeal. Gage Skidmore\/ZUMA \/ SplashNews.com<\/p>\n<p>Lower courts previously sided with Flores and the other plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit against the NFL and several of its franchises.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Flores, who is black, sued the league in February 2022, about a month after he was fired by the Dolphins.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Flores, who had record of 24-25 in his three seasons coaching the Dolphins and currently serves as the Minnesota Vikings\u2019 defensive coordinator, alleged the league\u2019s hiring practices were \u201crife with racism.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He was later joined in the lawsuit by fellow black coaches Steve Wilks and Ray Horton.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe NFL must now accept that its commissioner cannot be the arbitrator over discrimination claims against the league and its teams,\u201d David Gottlieb and Douglas Wigdor, attorneys for the coaches, said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/supreme-court-nfl-discrimination-lawsuit-brian-flores-91d9e10737e7f080f7dc900e849657ea\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">statement<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe look forward to litigating these claims in court.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The NFL said it respected the Supreme Court decision but is \u201cfully prepared to defend ourselves as this matter proceeds.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.50146628;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"39495633\" width=\"886\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/miami-dolphins-head-coach-brian-128781856.jpg\" alt=\"Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores speaks to the media.\" class=\"wp-image-39495633\"  \/>Flores has alleged the NFL is biased in its hiring practices. TNS<\/p>\n<p>Flores is suing the NFL as well as the Denver Broncos, the New York Giants and the Houston Texans \u2013 teams that refused to hire him following interviews for their head coaching openings.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Wilks, who was fired as the New York Jets\u2019 defensive coordinator in December, joined the lawsuit by claiming the Arizona Cardinals in 2018 hired him as a \u201cbridge coach\u201d before passing him over for the full-time role. He claims the Cardinals didn\u2019t provide him with a realistic chance to succeed.<\/p>\n<p>Horton, who last coached in the NFL in 2019, alleged the Tennessee Titans didn\u2019t offer him a genuine interview for the head coaching position in 2016.<\/p>\n<p>With Post wires<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Supreme Court denied an appeal from the NFL Tuesday to keep ex-Miami Dolphins head coach Brian Flores\u2019&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":696870,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,249933,22896,10934,2462,1233,593,84,3173,85,1049,3780],"class_list":["post-696869","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brett-kavanaugh","tag-brian-flores","tag-discrimination","tag-lawsuit","tag-miami-dolphins","tag-nfl","tag-politics","tag-race","tag-sports","tag-supreme-court","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696869","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=696869"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/696869\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/696870"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=696869"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=696869"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=696869"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}