© Karl Mondon/Bay Area News GroupJames Damore, a former Google employee who wrote a controversial diversity memo, appears alongside attorney Harmeet Dhillon during a press conference Monday, Jan. 8, 2018, in San Francisco, Calif., announcing a lawsuit against his former employer.
The ruling by Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge Brian Walsh means the case, which Damore exited late last year in favor of arbitration, can move forward into the discovery phase.
"This ruling is a significant step forward for all California workers, and sends notice to Silicon Valley that discrimination of any kind will not be escape legal scrutiny," lead plaintiffs' attorney Harmeet Dhillon said in a statement.
Google fired Damore in 2017 after an internal memo he wrote came to light. In the memo, Damore criticized the company's push for gender and racial diversity in its workforce, and suggested that the scarcity of women in tech could be explained by biological differences. Damore sued Google in January 2018 but opted to go into arbitration last October. He is still in arbitration talks with the company, a spokesman for the Dhillon Law Group said Friday.
Google did not immediately return a request for comment.
Damore's firing thrust Google into the nation's political wars, made him a hero among conservatives and inspired a planned far-right employee protest that didn't happen. Since then, accusations that Google and other tech companies are biased against conservatives have grown.
Four other men had joined the lawsuit as plaintiffs, but only two remain, the law firm's spokesman said.
The court denied three different Google motions to dismiss the lawsuit. Now the plaintiffs can request access to internal Google documents to try to support their allegations, which also include some people being "denied employment because of their actual and perceived conservative political activities and affiliations, and their status as actual or perceived Asian or Caucasian male job applicants," according to the lawsuit.
Levi Sumagaysay is a tech reporter and editor for the Mercury News. She has written or edited technology news since the first dot-com boom, and is a Good Morning Silicon Valley alum. Follow Levi Sumagaysay @levisu
Comment: The backlash is only just beginning.