Court Dismisses 'The Bachelor' Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

A federal judge has dismissed a suit filed by Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson, two men who sought to be contestants on the television show The Bachelor. 

Both men said that The Bachelor and its successor The Bachelorette discriminated in casting contestants of color. Claybrooks and Johnson claimed that the ABC network failed to give them, as well as other applicants of color, serious consideration. The pair sued in April. Through out 16 seasons of The Bachelor, all male contestants have been white.

U.S. District Court Judge Aleta Trauger dismissed the complaint based on First Amendment grounds, arguing that "The First Amendment protects the right of producers of these shows to craft and control those messages, based on whatever considerations the producers wish to take into account."

ABC celebrated the ruling, saying that the lawsuit had no merit from the beginning.

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