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Ricci V. Destefano And Disparate Treatment: How The Case Makes Title Vii And The Equal Protection Clause Unworkable, Allen R. Kamp

Allen R. Kamp

Abstract

Although early commentators have focused on Ricci’s discussion of disparate impact, I see what Ricci is saying about disparate treatment as being more important.

One can see Ricci as the case in which the Court came down in favor of one of two competing interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause and Title VII. The anti-subordination principle “is most concerned with actions of a majority race to intentionally subjugate members of a minority race . . . it is when government serves to ‘perpetuate . . . the subordinate status of a specially disadvantaged group that the Fourteenth Amendment is …

Ricci V. Destefano And Disparate Treatment: How The Case Makes Title Vii And The Equal Protection Clause Unworkable, Allen R. Kamp

Allen R. Kamp

ABSTRACT

Ricci v. DeStefano and Disparate Treatment: How the Case Makes Title VII and the Equal Protection Clause Unworkable

Although early commentators have focused on Ricci’s discussion of disparate impact, I see what Ricci is saying about disparate treatment as being more important. The majority and concurring opinions make proving disparate treatment much easier than under prior law, in a way that may utterly defeat that cause.

One can see Ricci as the case in which the Court came down in favor of one of two competing interpretations of the Equal Protection Clause and Title VII, “anti-subordination” and “anti-classification.” The …