The Second Circuit holds for the first time that an employer may violate Title VII if it takes action against an employee because of the employee’s association with a person of another race. The case before the Court involved a claim by a white assistant college basketball coach who said he was terminated by the school because of his marriage to a black woman. He alleged that one of the decision-makers in his termination habitually made racially offensive remarks, including using the n-word and calling his then fiancée an “Aunt Jemima.” The Court says a reasonable jury could determine that he was fired in part because he was married to a black woman, and send the case back to a lower court for a trial. Holcomb v. Iona College