A federal magistrate judge was assigned to handle pre-trial matters in a racial discrimination lawsuit brought by an employee at the Department of Energy’s Waste Isolation Pilot Plant in New Mexico who claims he was unfairly bypassed for promotion by the former site management contractor.
U.S. District Judge James Browning issued an order earlier this month in assigning U.S. Magistrate Judge Damian Martinez to oversee pre-trial proceedings in the case brought by Eddie Thomas against Nuclear Waste Partnership.
Thomas filed suit against the former Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) management contractor in 2021, saying he was the only African American working in security there in May 2020 when he was passed over for a promotion allegedly due to his race.
In its reply, Amentum-led Nuclear Waste Partnership said Thomas lacked the needed security clearance level needed when the job was posted.
The newly-appointed magistrate just has set a discovery hearing April 12. Jury selection for the case has been tentatively set for early May in U.S. District Court for New Mexico.
