(NewsNation) — A white, male law student is suing the Chicago Bears because he didn’t qualify for a fellowship intended for women and persons of color.
“My position is simple, and my message consistent. All people, regardless of their race, origin, gender identity, sexual orientation, or any other factor must be entitled to the same opportunities for success,” said Jonathan Bresser Jr. in a statement supplied by his attorney.
Bresser says he applied for a Bears Legal Diversity Fellow position, which requires candidates to identify as “person of color and/or female law student.”
Bresser’s attorneys filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Chicago, seeking damages for the Bears’ “deliberate discriminatory and sexist hiring practices.”
The filing says the Bears, in rejecting Bresser, said the team was considering “other applicants whose experience and qualifications more closely match (their) needs.”
Lawyers for the first-year law student at DePaul University countered: He’s more than qualified, and the only listed qualification he didn’t “plausibly” meet was to be a person of color or female.
The filing accuses the Bears of engaging in “intentional race and sex discrimination when creating and circulating a job positing by which its very nature excluded Caucasian men as viable applicants.”
Bears Director of Corporate Communications Miceah Johnson told NewsNation: “We do not comment publicly on ongoing litigation, but we plan to rigorously defend the claim.”
Bresser’s LinkedIn page identifies him as a paralegal for Trent Law Firm of Chicago, which is representing him in this case.