CBS Sued Over SEAL Team Writer Alleging Racial Quotas

Brian Beneker, a script coordinator for SEAL Team, a military drama television series, filed a lawsuit against CBS in California federal court on Wednesday, stating that he was repeatedly denied a staff writer position on the show after the implementation of DEI policies. However, some argue that those are illegal acts of race and sex balancing within an organization, as they support the hiring of less qualified applicants who were members of more preferred groups—women, those who identify as LGBTQ+, and racial minorities.

In his claim, Beneker stated that he was passed over for hiring as a staff writer multiple times by CBS in favor of Black or female candidates, despite working on SEAL Team and writing three episodes for the show (in a freelance capacity) since 2017. Additionally, he also claims that the hired candidates have less experience than him, and when he complained about the alleged mistreatment, he was told that CBS has to meet its diversity quotas for its writers’ room. Additionally, he also claims that he was assured he would get a staff position, but the show instead hired six additional writers, all female.

Beneker now seeks at least $500,000 and a court order that would make him a full-time producer on SEAL Team, as well as barring any further diversity-based hiring practices within the CBS Studios (and possibly Paramount). Beneker is represented by the America First Legal Foundation and thelawsuit comes less than a year after the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative actions in the Students for Fair Admission v Harvard case.

For those who aren’t in the loop, the America First Legal Foundation was founded by former Trump adviser and far-right anti-immigration activist Stephen Miller. The Foundation has filed numerous complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission before against other major companies, including Starbucks, McDonald’s, and Morgan Stanley, arguing that corporate diversity practices violate civil rights guidelines. CBS adheres to its DEI policies, which state that their writers’ room must consist of at least 40 percent minorities, and this applies to the SEAL Team series as well.

The lawsuit against CBS and SEAL Team production was made following the US Supreme Court’s ruling last year’s against race-conscious admissions in colleges and universities in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard. In that particular case, the group of students sued the University, claiming that race-conscious admissions violate the 14^th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause, which protects against discrimination by the government.

Though that particular ruling doesn’t apply to companies such as CBS, which are governed by other federal laws, the complaint by the SEAL Team script coordinator is likely to question the legality of corporate diversity and DEI policies implemented across the corporate world—as if Paramount didn’t have enough problems already.