So are you saying if he were a woman or minority it'd have been easier to get hired and he'd have a stronger wrongful termination suit?
Since he violated the code of conduct, there's not much to base a suit off of regardless of genetics.
Not sure what's the case at Google, but when I was managing people at a Fortune 500 company, I was guided by HR to be especially careful if I need to fire a women or a minority employee - put them on PIP, document everything very carefully, etc. - because of much higher perceived risk of a wrongful termination suit.
For basically all intents and purposes, every state the US is an at-will state, with very narrow exceptions in a few states few tech people work in.
Which makes me all the happier, personally, to work in one of those states. At Will employment is such an employee hostile asymmetrical contract.
It works both ways. You can also quit any time you want.
That's theoretically the benefit of at will. But that benefit is asymmetric - a company won't hardly notice one persons leaving, but a person's life will be unduly burdened by being fired with no warning or cause.