Is this legal?
 

I have noticed lately that there is a new trend in the good ol' USA going on of not hiring pilots unless they have a US passport. It even shows up on the pilot employment websites. It looks like a "green card" is not good enough anymore. I thought it was illegal under US constitution to discriminate against race, religion, country of origin, resident status and a few more. All of my former collegues have been refused jobs with American carriers because of their resident status. This looks illegal to me. Did I miss something the last few years or is this part of some sort of new GW act?

I think many things have changed since they have instituted the "Patriot Act".

Adverts for Boeing and other U.S employers in Flight International and other publications often stipulate that the posts are only open to U.S citizens or people who have already complted the necessary procedures to become a naturalised resident, they wouldn't place such adverts without checking their facts.

That is true. And for that to be true something in the US constitution must have been changed not too long ago. I am glad to have a job with the Japanese but a lot of my friends are on unemployment. They have thousands of heavy hours but they just have to wait a considerable amount of time for their paperwork to be processed for a US passport. So far for the brotherhood between gringo's and the brits.