The Bachelor Producers Claim First Amendment in Racism Lawsuit

The popular dating show has never starred a minority.

Posted: 06/07/2012 08:00 AM EDT

It doesn't look like a settlement is on the horizon in the lawsuit against ABC and The Bachelor.


Less than two months after Nathaniel Claybrooks and Christopher Johnson filed a discrimination suit against The Bachelor producers Warner Horizon Television and Bachelor network ABC, the case appears to be headed to trial, with the location possibly moved to California at the request of the defendants. 


In the suit, Claybrooks and Johnson claim that the show has deliberately avoided casting a non-white bachelor for fear of "alienating the show's majority-white viewership."


The plaintiffs both tried out for the reality show, but were dissuaded from auditioning by the show's producers.


The Hollywood Reporter says the defendants plan to plead the First Amendment in their defense, a controversial move that has not always been rewarded in comparable cases. 


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(Photo: Courtesy ABC)

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