Law Commons^™

The Trouble With Racial Quotas In Disparate Impact Remedial Orders, Wencong Fa

William & Mary Bill of Rights Journal

Justice Scalia’s concurring opinion in Ricci v. DeStefano highlighted severe conceptual tensions between the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, which protects individuals from racial discrimination, and disparate impact liability, which protects racial groups from adverse effects. Last year’s Supreme Court decision in Texas Department of Housing & Community Affairs v. Inclusive Communities Project, Inc. suggested that disparate impact liability under the Fair Housing Act was constitutionally unproblematic because successful fair housing lawsuits over the past four decades have led to only race-neutral remedial orders enjoining the practice causing the disparate impact.

This Article analyzes the constitutionality of another …

Justice Kennedy's Big New Idea, Sandra F. Sperino

Faculty Articles and Other Publications

In a 2015 case, the Supreme Court held that plaintiffs could bring disparate impact claims under the Fair Housing Act (the "FHA"). In the majority opinion, Justice Kennedy relied heavily on the text and supporting case law interpreting Title VII of the Civil Rights Act ("Title VII") and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the "ADEA '). Without explicitly recognizing the powerful new idea he was advocating, Justice Kennedy's majority opinion radically reconceptualized federal employment discrimination jurisprudence. This new reading of Title VII and the ADEA changes both the theoretical framing of the discrimination statutes and greatly expands their scope. …

Reviving Paycheck Fairness: Why And How The Factor-Other-Than-Sex Defense Matters, Deborah L. Brake

Articles

Ever since the Supreme Court’s short-lived decision in Ledbetter v. Goodyear Tire Company, the equal pay movement has coalesced around the Paycheck Fairness Act as the legal reform strategy for addressing the gender wage gap. The centerpiece of the Act would tighten the Factor Other Than Sex defense (FOTS) to require the employer’s sex-neutral factor to be bona fide, job-related for the position in question, and consistent with business necessity. Even without the Paycheck Fairness Act, some recent lower court decisions have interpreted the existing Equal Pay Act to set limits on the nondiscriminatory factors that can satisfy the …