Marlean Ames challenged rulings requiring members of majority groups to meet a higher bar to prove job discrimination than groups that traditionally face bias.

U.S. Supreme Court justices appeared on Wednesday to lean toward making it easier for people from "majority backgrounds," such as white or straight people, to pursue workplace discrimination claims, as they heard an appeal by an Ohio woman who claims she was denied a promotion and demoted because she is heterosexual.

The Supreme Court appeared likely to allow a woman to pursue a claim that she was discriminated at work because she is straight.