{"id":143723,"date":"2026-02-09T16:05:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:05:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/09\/starbucks-grinds-lawsuit-over-lack-of-white-baristas\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:05:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T00:05:14","slug":"starbucks-grinds-lawsuit-over-lack-of-white-baristas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2026\/02\/09\/starbucks-grinds-lawsuit-over-lack-of-white-baristas\/","title":{"rendered":"Starbucks Grinds Lawsuit Over Lack Of White Baristas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pour one out for Missouri prosecutors!<\/p>\n

A year ago, the state sued<\/a> Starbucks for failing to hire enough white, male baristas, forcing consumers \u201cto pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services that could be provided for less had Starbucks employed the most qualified workers.\u201d Implicit in this is the assumption that you need a flat white dude to make a flat white. Or, more specifically, that medium-roast managers are less qualified than their blonde peers \u2014 something for which no evidence was presented.<\/p>\n

But the effort to grind Starbucks over the company\u2019s DEI policies fell flat last week when a federal judge tossed the legally undrinkable swill. Looks like the state\u2019s top prosecutor ought to worry more about the quality of her lawyering than the race of the brew master.<\/p>\n

Bitter Beans<\/h2>\n

It all started so well! Andy Bailey, who was then Missouri\u2019s attorney general, was desperate to catch President Trump\u2019s attention. He\u2019d been passed over<\/a> to lead the Justice Department in favor of Pam Bondi. But he still had high hopes, and so he used his position as state AG to file a bunch of culture war trollsuits.<\/p>\n

In February, he sued the ubiquitous coffee company alleging that it unlawfully discriminated against white men. The complaint pointed to Starbucks\u2019 2021 Global Environmental & Social Impact Report, which laid out aspirational goals for women, LGBTQ+ employees, and BIPOC in management and executive roles. AG Bailey insisted that this had cost the citizens of Missouri dearly, although he was a little cloudy on exactly how lesbians in management raised the price of a venti.<\/p>\n

Nor did the complaint point to any<\/em> individual Missouri resident who\u2019d been harmed by Starbucks\u2019 policies \u2014 no white dude who lost out on his big promotion because of \u201cinvidious\u201d DEI, no executive who had his bonus cut based on failure to put enough Latinos in management. Instead, he gestured vaguely in the direction of the \u201c234 job openings in Missouri, ranging from barista to store manager to district manager\u201d and insisted that \u201cStarbucks\u2019 policies harm the many Missourians whom [sic] work, or would like to work, at Starbucks, but have been, are being, or will be discriminated against as future victims on the basis of their race, sex, or inclusion in other protected groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey also sweetened the pot with a gratuitous attack on the term \u201cLatinX.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it worked!<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, not in court. But Bailey did manage to get Trump\u2019s attention long enough to get himself made deputy director of the FBI. All he had to do was babysit Dan Bongino<\/a> for a few months until the podcaster got bored and wandered back to his studio. If Bailey keeps his head down, maybe he\u2019ll be running the FBI when Kash Patel finally manages to wear out his welcome!<\/p>\n

No Filter<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile back in Missouri, Bailey\u2019s successor Catherine Hanaway was having a lot less fun as the Starbucks case percolated through the court system.<\/p>\n

In October, Senior Judge John Ross ordered<\/a> the state to fix all the broken links in its pleading instanter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff\u2019s complaint is heavily reliant on language that purports to be quoted from various reports and documents authored by Defendant or otherwise describing Defendant\u2019s policies, practices, and strategic objectives,\u201d he sniffed, noting that \u201cit has come to the Court\u2019s attention that the majority of the links to these electronic documents are no longer functional.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then he French pressed<\/a> the state\u2019s case into oblivion for failure to state any plausible theory of standing or legal claim for relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff failed to allege that any actual Missouri residents applied for an open position in Missouri and were rejected, were passed over for promotion, were disciplined or demoted unfairly, or tried and failed to take advantage of any other benefit of employment with Defendant because of a protected characteristic,\u201d he wrote incredulously, noting that, if such victims of discrimination exist, they are perfectly free to sue on their own accounts.<\/p>\n

He also noted that Missouri supplied exactly zero evidence connecting the \u201callegedly unqualified employees who were hired based on \u2018non-merit considerations\u2019\u201d to the \u201cpresumed skew in prices, wait times, and product quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Judge Ross wasn\u2019t done!<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Plaintiff did have standing to pursue the claims of individual citizens, Plaintiff\u2019s claims are still doomed,\u201d he continued, noting that the Missouri Attorney General \u201clacks statutory authority to bring claims under Title VII, Section 1981, or the [Missouri Human Rights Act].\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, this case was incompetently pled and defective both procedurally and substantively. It\u2019s functionally a press release that allowed Bailey to congratulate himself<\/a> for protecting his constituents \u201cfrom a company that actively engages in systemic race and sex discrimination\u201d and then waste a lot of court resources cleaning up his home brew slop.<\/p>\n

It was a cup of frothy indignation, and now it\u2019s just backwash. But \u2026 Andy Bailey got his promotion, so assume that the FBI will be raiding a Starbucks near you soon.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to read more at Law and Chaos\u2026.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0Substack\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0You can subscribe by clicking the logo:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

The post Starbucks Grinds Lawsuit Over Lack Of White Baristas<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pour one out for Missouri prosecutors!<\/p>\n

A year ago, the state sued<\/a> Starbucks for failing to hire enough white, male baristas, forcing consumers \u201cto pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services that could be provided for less had Starbucks employed the most qualified workers.\u201d Implicit in this is the assumption that you need a flat white dude to make a flat white. Or, more specifically, that medium-roast managers are less qualified than their blonde peers \u2014 something for which no evidence was presented.<\/p>\n

But the effort to grind Starbucks over the company\u2019s DEI policies fell flat last week when a federal judge tossed the legally undrinkable swill. Looks like the state\u2019s top prosecutor ought to worry more about the quality of her lawyering than the race of the brew master.<\/p>\n

Bitter Beans<\/h2>\n

It all started so well! Andy Bailey, who was then Missouri\u2019s attorney general, was desperate to catch President Trump\u2019s attention. He\u2019d been passed over<\/a> to lead the Justice Department in favor of Pam Bondi. But he still had high hopes, and so he used his position as state AG to file a bunch of culture war trollsuits.<\/p>\n

In February, he sued the ubiquitous coffee company alleging that it unlawfully discriminated against white men. The complaint pointed to Starbucks\u2019 2021 Global Environmental & Social Impact Report, which laid out aspirational goals for women, LGBTQ+ employees, and BIPOC in management and executive roles. AG Bailey insisted that this had cost the citizens of Missouri dearly, although he was a little cloudy on exactly how lesbians in management raised the price of a venti.<\/p>\n

Nor did the complaint point to any<\/em> individual Missouri resident who\u2019d been harmed by Starbucks\u2019 policies \u2014 no white dude who lost out on his big promotion because of \u201cinvidious\u201d DEI, no executive who had his bonus cut based on failure to put enough Latinos in management. Instead, he gestured vaguely in the direction of the \u201c234 job openings in Missouri, ranging from barista to store manager to district manager\u201d and insisted that \u201cStarbucks\u2019 policies harm the many Missourians whom [sic] work, or would like to work, at Starbucks, but have been, are being, or will be discriminated against as future victims on the basis of their race, sex, or inclusion in other protected groups.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bailey also sweetened the pot with a gratuitous attack on the term \u201cLatinX.\u201d<\/p>\n

And it worked!<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, not in court. But Bailey did manage to get Trump\u2019s attention long enough to get himself made deputy director of the FBI. All he had to do was babysit Dan Bongino<\/a> for a few months until the podcaster got bored and wandered back to his studio. If Bailey keeps his head down, maybe he\u2019ll be running the FBI when Kash Patel finally manages to wear out his welcome!<\/p>\n

No Filter<\/h2>\n

Meanwhile back in Missouri, Bailey\u2019s successor Catherine Hanaway was having a lot less fun as the Starbucks case percolated through the court system.<\/p>\n

In October, Senior Judge John Ross ordered<\/a> the state to fix all the broken links in its pleading instanter.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff\u2019s complaint is heavily reliant on language that purports to be quoted from various reports and documents authored by Defendant or otherwise describing Defendant\u2019s policies, practices, and strategic objectives,\u201d he sniffed, noting that \u201cit has come to the Court\u2019s attention that the majority of the links to these electronic documents are no longer functional.\u201d<\/p>\n

And then he French pressed<\/a> the state\u2019s case into oblivion for failure to state any plausible theory of standing or legal claim for relief.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlaintiff failed to allege that any actual Missouri residents applied for an open position in Missouri and were rejected, were passed over for promotion, were disciplined or demoted unfairly, or tried and failed to take advantage of any other benefit of employment with Defendant because of a protected characteristic,\u201d he wrote incredulously, noting that, if such victims of discrimination exist, they are perfectly free to sue on their own accounts.<\/p>\n

He also noted that Missouri supplied exactly zero evidence connecting the \u201callegedly unqualified employees who were hired based on \u2018non-merit considerations\u2019\u201d to the \u201cpresumed skew in prices, wait times, and product quality.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Judge Ross wasn\u2019t done!<\/p>\n

\u201cEven if Plaintiff did have standing to pursue the claims of individual citizens, Plaintiff\u2019s claims are still doomed,\u201d he continued, noting that the Missouri Attorney General \u201clacks statutory authority to bring claims under Title VII, Section 1981, or the [Missouri Human Rights Act].\u201d<\/p>\n

In short, this case was incompetently pled and defective both procedurally and substantively. It\u2019s functionally a press release that allowed Bailey to congratulate himself<\/a> for protecting his constituents \u201cfrom a company that actively engages in systemic race and sex discrimination\u201d and then waste a lot of court resources cleaning up his home brew slop.<\/p>\n

It was a cup of frothy indignation, and now it\u2019s just backwash. But \u2026 Andy Bailey got his promotion, so assume that the FBI will be raiding a Starbucks near you soon.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to read more at Law and Chaos\u2026.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Liz Dye<\/a>\u00a0produces the Law and Chaos\u00a0Substack\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0podcast<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0You can subscribe by clicking the logo:<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n

The post Starbucks Grinds Lawsuit Over Lack Of White Baristas<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Pour one out for Missouri prosecutors! A year ago, the state sued Starbucks for failing to hire enough white, male baristas, forcing consumers \u201cto pay higher prices and wait longer for goods and services that could be provided for less had Starbucks employed the most qualified workers.\u201d Implicit in this is the assumption that you […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":143724,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-143723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/law-and-chaos-logo-liz-dye-300x153-NVUJln.jpg?fit=300%2C153&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143723","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=143723"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/143723\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/143724"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=143723"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=143723"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=143723"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}