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De Minimis Discrimination, Rebecca H. White

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Is there any basis for a de minimis exception to our employment discrimination laws? This Article suggests a way of analyzing the issue of de minimis discrimination that comports with the language of and policies underlying Title VII and also with judicially developed disparate treatment theory. It approaches this project from a normative and doctrinal, not a deontological, perspective. Congress has enacted laws prohibiting discrimination in employment, and the appropriate question, in the first instance, is how those statutes should best be interpreted. Although the focus is on Title VII, the analysis undertaken here may be usefully applied to other …