Law Commons^™

From Loving To Obergefell: Elevating The Significance Of Discriminatory Effects, Holning Lau

Holning Lau

The Disparate Treatment Of Race And Class In Constitutional Jurisprudence, Mario L. Barnes, Erwin Chemerinsky

Erwin Chemerinsky

No abstract provided.

Disparate Impact, School Closures, And Parental Choice, Nicole Stelle Garnett

Nicole Stelle Garnett

We live in an era of parental choice. Today, forty-two states and the District of Columbia authorize charter schools, and twenty states and the District of Columbia permit students to use public funds to attend a private school. During the 2012-2013 school year, nearly 2 million children attended charter schools, and nearly 250,000 children received publicly funded scholarship to attend a private school. The expanding menu of publicly funded educational options is one (but by no means the only) factor contributing to the current, intensely controversial, waves of urban public school closures. In school-closure debates, proponents of traditional public schools …

A Response To Professor Choper: Laying Down Another Ladder, Sheri Lynn Johnson

Sheri Lynn Johnson

No abstract provided.

The Metamorphosis Of Comparable Worth, Nancy E. Dowd

Nancy Dowd

The concept of comparable worth has as its factual predicate two typical characteristics of women's employment: occupational concentration or segregation and significantly lower wages compared to those paid to men. What continues to be most troubling about this employment pattern is its stubborn persistence, despite the increased presence of women in the workforce and the existence for over two decades of legislation prohibiting sex discrimination in employment. The concept of comparable worth has provoked an outpouring of emotional rhetoric and scholarly analysis debating the concept’s viability and desirability. Rather than add to that debate, Professor Dowd traces the evolution of …

Disabling The Gender Pay Gap: Lessons From The Social Model Of Disability, Michelle Travis

Michelle A. Travis

As we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of Title VII’s prohibition against sex-based compensation discrimination in the workplace, the gender wage gap remains robust and progress toward gender pay equity has stalled. This article reveals the role that causal narratives play in undermining the law’s potential for reducing the gender pay gap. The most recent causal narrative is illustrated by the “women don’t ask” and “lean in” storylines, which reveal our society’s entrenched view that women themselves are responsible for their own pay inequality. This causal narrative has also embedded itself in subtle but pernicious ways in antidiscrimination doctrine, which helps …

Employment Discrimination: Recent Developments In The Supreme Court (Symposium: The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1992-93 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

At a symposium entitled, “The Supreme Court and Local Government Law; The 1992/93 Term”, Professor Eileen Kaufman spoke about the cases involving employment discrimination that were decided during that particular Term, Hazen Paper Company v. Biggins and St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks. While Hazen is an age discrimination case and St. Mary's is a Title VII case, they can be viewed as companion cases which serve to explain what an employment discrimination plaintiff must now establish when attempting to prove disparate treatment by indirect evidence. By way of preview, suffice it to say that plaintiff's task has been made …

Saving Disparate Impact, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

No abstract provided.

Saving Disparate Impact, Lawrence Rosenthal

Lawrence Rosenthal

More than four decades ago, the Supreme Court concluded that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964’s prohibition on racial discrimination in employment is properly construed to forbid “practices, procedures, or tests neutral on their face, and even neutral in terms of intent,” that nevertheless “operate as ‘built-in headwinds’ for minority groups . . . that are unrelated to testing job capability.” In the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Congress codified liability for cases in which an employer “uses a particular employment practice that causes a disparate impact on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national …

Toward Positive Equality: Taking The Disparate Impact Out Of Disparate Impact Theory, Michelle Travis

Michelle A. Travis

Employment discrimination doctrine has become so dependent upon the concept of social group membership that group consciousness is generally viewed as an essential and defining feature of antidiscrimination law. Just over a decade ago, however, Professor Mark Kelman launched an investigation into whether and why antidiscrimination law must or should make reference to group status. This Article extends that investigation into the disparate impact arena by exploring the proper role, if any, that group consciousness should play in legal efforts to ensure that facially neutral employment practices are demonstrably merit-based. This analysis reveals the value in considering a practice-conscious rather …

Disparate Impact Is Not Unconstitutional, Michael Evan Gold

Michael Evan Gold

[Excerpt] In Ricci v. DeStefano, the "New Haven Firefighters" case, whitefirefighters and one Hispanic firefighter sued the city of New Haven, Connecticut and city officials under Title VII. The plaintiffs claimed the city had committed intentional discrimination or disparate treatment against them when the city disregarded the results of promotion examinations that had an adverse effect on black and Hispanic applicants. The Supreme Court sustained the claim. In his concurring opinion, Justice Scalia invited attorneys in subsequent cases to consider arguing that the disparate impact theory of employment discrimination is unconstitutional. He reasoned as follows: • The Constitution prohibits the …

Ricci’S “Color-Blind” Standard In A Race Conscious Society: A Case Of Unintended Consequences?, Michael J. Zimmer

Michael J Zimmer

Ricci’s Color-Blind Standard in a Race Conscious Society: A Case of Unintended Consequences? By Michael J. Zimmer Abstract In Ricci v. DeStefano, the Supreme Court, in an opinion by Justice Kennedy, ruled that, as a matter of law, the City of New Haven had committed intentional disparate treatment discrimination that violated Title VII by deciding not to use the results of a test given to promote firefighters to openings as lieutenants and captains. The attempt of the City to defend its decision by claiming it was because using the test scores would result in an adverse impact on minority group …

Equality In The Virtual Workplace, Michelle A. Travis

Michelle A. Travis

This article places the sociological data on telecommuting into a theoretical context in an attempt to resolve a current split in feminist work/family conflict jurisprudence. Some legal feminists argue that women's workplace inequality is largely the result of forces external to the workplace - i.e., learned or inherent differences in women's propensity to perform carework. Other legal feminists argue that women's workplace inequality is largely the result of forces internal to the workplace - i.e., workplace structures and practices that exclude most women from the most desirable jobs. This article argues that the telecommuting data supports the latter theory, rather …

Proving Discrimination After Price Waterhouse And Wards Cove.Pdf, Candace Kovacic-Fleischer

Candace Kovacic-Fleischer