Law Commons^™

An Industry Missing Minorities: The Disparate Impact Of The Securities And Exchange Commission's Fingerprinting Rule, Kelly Noonan

Chicago-Kent Law Review

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ("EEOC") recently asserted that the use of criminal background checks as an employment screening tool may have a disparate impact on African Americans and Hispanics, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC and some private claimants have even filed lawsuits against employers claiming disparate impact violations based on statistics that show African Americans and Hispanics are considerably more likely to have criminal records than other racial groups. Yet, certain federal regulatory agencies require participants in their industries to subject employees to criminal background checks as a condition of …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Achieving More Just Results In Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Cases By Re-Examining Supreme Court Precedent, Elisabeth A. Keller, Judith B. Tracy

Elisabeth Keller

Lower federal courts often fail to provide plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases the relief intended by Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 and mandated by the Supreme Court when it recognized the cause of action twenty years ago. There is little doubt that sexual harassment in the workplace persists. However, lower courts misapply or ignore Supreme Court reasoning that would result in fairer and more consistent dispositions in hostile work environment sexual harassment cases. This article draws directly on reasoning from the Supreme Court cases to explain the sources of the confusion in the lower courts and offers …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Achieving More Just Results In Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Cases By Re-Examining Supreme Court Precedent, Elisabeth A. Keller, Judith B. Tracy

Elisabeth Keller

Lower federal courts often fail to provide plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases the relief intended by Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 and mandated by the Supreme Court when it recognized the cause of action twenty years ago. There is little doubt that sexual harassment in the workplace persists. However, lower courts misapply or ignore Supreme Court reasoning that would result in fairer and more consistent dispositions in hostile work environment sexual harassment cases. This article draws directly on reasoning from the Supreme Court cases to explain the sources of the confusion in the lower courts and offers …

Hidden In Plain Sight: Achieving More Just Results In Hostile Work Environment Sexual Harassment Cases By Re-Examining Supreme Court Precedent, Elisabeth A. Keller, Judith B. Tracy

Judith B. Tracy

Lower federal courts often fail to provide plaintiffs in sexual harassment cases the relief intended by Title VII of the Civil Rights of 1964 and mandated by the Supreme Court when it recognized the cause of action twenty years ago. There is little doubt that sexual harassment in the workplace persists. However, lower courts misapply or ignore Supreme Court reasoning that would result in fairer and more consistent dispositions in hostile work environment sexual harassment cases. This article draws directly on reasoning from the Supreme Court cases to explain the sources of the confusion in the lower courts and offers …

Harvesting New Conceptions Of Equality: Opportunity, Results, And Neutrality, Cedric M. Powell

Cedric M. Powell

The Standard Of Causation In The Mixed-Motive Title Vii Action—A Social Policy Perspective, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

In this Article, Professor Brodin explores the causal-relation problem in individual employment discrimination suits alleging disparate treatment brought under title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The effort in this Article is to define a theory of causation for the individual disparate treatment case that is consistent with the goals of title VII as well as with the realities and limitations of our adversary system of adjudication. Professor Brodin surveys the problem, traces the development of relevant case law and concludes with a proposal of causal analysis that separates issues of liability from those of remedy.

The Demise Of Circumstantial Proof In Employment Discrimination Litigation: St. Mary's Honor Center V. Hicks, Pretext, And The 'Personality' Excuse, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

Since the enactment of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 the courts have struggled to define the burdens of proof surrounding the central issue of an employer's alleged discriminatory intent. What evolved was the McDonnell Douglas framework, premised upon established concepts of circumstantial proof and inference. The approach permits plaintiffs lacking direct proof to nonetheless establish a violation of the Act by proving that the employer's explanation of the challenged decision was pretextual. In St. Mary's Honor Center v. Hicks, a closely-divided Supreme Court substantially altered the McDonnell Douglas framework. Discrediting the reasons offered by the employer …

The Standard Of Causation In The Mixed-Motive Title Vii Action -- A Social Policy Perspective, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

No abstract provided.

The Role Of Fault And Motive In Defining Discrimination: The Seniority Question Under Title Vii, Mark S. Brodin

Mark S. Brodin

Seniority systems play an important role in American industry, often governing rights to promotion, pay scales, layoff, and relative entitlement to ancillary benefits. Seniority based decision making protects employees from arbitrary employer action, yet seniority's same protective feature often may frustrate minorities' efforts to achieve actual equal employment opportunity Relying on Title Vii's section 703(h), the Supreme Court has held that seniority systems are immune from attack unless discriminatory intent is shown. In this Article, Professor Brodin reviews the evolution of the intent standard now governing seniority system challenges. He contrasts the Supreme Court's restrictive definition of intent in the …

Discrimination Cases In The 2001 Term Of The Supreme Court (Symposium: The Fourteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1995-1996 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Fairness In Disparity: Challenging The Application Of Disparate Impact Theory In Fair Housing Claims Against Insurers, Matthew Jordan Cochran

Matthew Jordan Cochran

This article responds to courts and commentators that have expressed willingness to apply the familiar "disparate impact" analysis--which is a creation of Title VII (employment discrimination) jurisprudence--in suits against homeowners' insurers. Specifically, these insurers' credit-based pricing mechanisms systems are attacked under the Fair Housing Act as having a discriminatory effect on members of protected classes with poor credit. Unfortunately, there are a number of legal, conceptual, and practical arguments against application of this Title VII standard in such cases. Yet courts endorsing this standard do not appear to have given due consideration to the possibility that some disparities simply might …

After The Fall: The Employer's Duty To Accommodate Employee Religious Practices Under Title Vii After Ansonia Board Of Education V. Philbrook, Peter Zablotsky

Peter Zablotsky

No abstract provided.

Workplace Religious Accommodation For Muslims And The Promise Of State Constitutionalism, Peter Longo, Joan M. Blauwkamp

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This article considers whether state constitutionalism provides greater possibilities for workplace religious accommodation than is currently available to religious minorities within federal law under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. We approach this question via a case study of the controversy over religious accommodation for practicing Muslims employed by the JBS Swift and Company meatpacking plant in Grand Island, N E. The case study consists of analyses of the requirements for religious accommodation under federal law, examination of the reasons why religious accommodation under federal law was not achieved in the Grand Island case, and analysis of …

The Changing Face Of Liberalism In Workplace Democracy: The Shift From Collective To Individual Rights, Emily Eschenbach Barker

Emily Eschenbach Barker

The 1960s and 1970s saw a drastic change in the liberal conception of workplace equality. Post-war liberals defined equality in terms of collective rights, with labor law and unions epitomizing this conception. The civil rights generation, on the other hand, thought equality to be based in the rights of the individual. As new laws upholding individual civil rights proliferated, employers found themselves increasingly bound by incompatible legal duties under the two parallel systems governing labor rights.

Through their union agreements, employers were bound to treat all employees identically; administering vacations, bonuses, and promotions according to seniority as outlined in the …

Other Civil Rights Decisions In The October 2005 Term: Title Vii, Idea, And Section 1981(Eighteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination: Recent Developments In The Supreme Court (The Supreme Court And Local Government Law: The 1994-1995 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases In The October 2004 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases In The Supreme Court's 1997 Term (The Supreme Court And State And Local Government Law: The 1997-1998 Term), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Employment Discrimination And Presidential Immunity Cases, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases In The 2000 Term, Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Discrimination Cases Of The 2002 Term (Symposium: The Fifteenth Annual Supreme Court Review), Eileen Kaufman

Eileen Kaufman

No abstract provided.

Evening The Odds: The Case For Attorneys' Fee Awards For Administrative Resolution Of Title Vi And Title Vii Disputes, Marjorie A. Silver

Marjorie A. Silver

In this Article Professor Silver addresses the shifting of attorneys' fees in administratively resolved claims under Titles VI and VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Professor Silver begins by establishing Congress' commitment to provide informal methods for resolving disputes under these statutes and its intent to use fee-shifting provisions as a means of inducing effective access to counsel. She then discusses the United States Supreme Court's decision in North Carolina Department of Transportation v. Crest Street Community Council, Inc. and contrasts its reasoning with two earlier Court decisions dealing with administrative proceedings and attorneys' fees. Professor Silver argues …

Sex Equality's Unnamed Nemesis, Veronica Percia

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

Sex inequality still exists. However, its manifestations have evolved since the early sex inequality cases were heard in courts and legislatures first began structuring statutory regimes to combat it. In particular, so-called "facial" discrimination against men and women on the basis of sex has no doubt decreased since the advent of this legal assault on sex inequality. Yet the gendered assumptions that structure our institutions and interactions have proven resilient. With sex discrimination now operating more covertly, the problem of sex inequality looks considerably different than it once did. Courts, however, have failed to successfully respond to the changing contours …

Removing Categorical Constraints On Equal Employment Opportunities And Anti-Discrimination Protections, Anastasia Niedrich

Michigan Journal of Gender & Law

It has been the "historical tendency of anti-discrimination law to use categories to define protected classes of people." This Article challenges the categorical approach and seeks to change that limited framework. This Article focuses on the flaws with Title VII's categorical approach and discusses why there is a desperate need for change to combat the different types and targets of workplace discrimination today, focusing on the transgender community as one example. After discussing the current framework and operation of Title VII, this Article analyzes the insurmountable flaws inherent in the categorical approach to anti-discrimination law, and specifically considers Title VII's …

Grossly Restricted Pleading: Twombly/Iqbal, Gross And Cannibalistic Facts In Compound Employment Discrimination Claims, Brian S. Clarke

Brian S. Clarke

Beginning in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007) and concluding with Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 129 S. Ct. 1937 (U.S. 2009), the Supreme Court redefined the requirements of notice pleading under Fed. R. Civ. Proc. 8(a)(2) and the standard of review on motions to dismiss under F. R. Civ. Proc. 12(b)(6). Just one month after Iqbal, the Supreme Court decided Gross v. FBL Financial Servs., Inc., 129 S. Ct. 2343 (U.S. 2009). In Gross, which involved a claim for age discrimination under the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (the “ADEA”), the Court held that an ADEA claim required …

Clarifying Stereotyping, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

This Article addresses the largely undefined, misunderstood-yet-often-resorted-to concept of “stereotyping” as a basis for, or sufficient evidence of, liability for employment discrimination. Since, the concept’s genesis in Supreme Court jurisprudence in 1989, Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, plaintiffs have proffered remarks alleged to be tinged with, or indicating the presence of, impermissible stereotypes as evidence of discrimination based on protected-class status – be that sex, race, color, religion, or national origin – in contravention of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The Article examines the language in Hopkins and its precise mandates and guidance for lower courts. It …

Shortcuts In Employment Discrimination Law, Kerri Lynn Stone

Faculty Publications

Are employment discrimination plaintiffs viewed by society and by judges with an increased skepticism? This article urges that the same actor inference, the stray comment doctrine, and strict temporal nexus requirements, as courts have applied them, make up a larger and dangerous trend in the area of employment discrimination jurisprudence- that of courts reverting to special, judge-made "shortcuts" to curtail or even bypass analysis necessary to justify the disposal or proper adjudication of a case. This shorthand across different doctrines reveals a willingness of the judiciary to proxy monolithic assumptions for the individualized reasoned analyses mandated by the relevant antidiscrimination …

Class Actions At The Crossroads: An Answer To Wal-Mart V. Dukes, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

The Supreme Court has recently decided to hear argument in the largest private-employer civil rights case in American history, Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. This historic case involves up to 1.5 million women suing Wal-Mart, one of the largest companies in the world, for alleged gender discrimination in pay and promotions, in violation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Like many employees who challenge companywide employment discrimination, the plaintiffs in Dukes brought their case as a class action pursuant to Rule 23(b)(2) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and sought injunctive and declaratory relief, …

Ricci V. Destefano: Diluting Disparate Impact And Redefining Disparate Treatment, Ann C. Mcginley

Scholarly Works

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 permits plaintiffs to bring discrimination cases under two different theories: disparate treatment, which requires a showing of the employer’s discriminatory intent, and disparate impact, which holds the employer liable absent intent to discriminate if it uses neutral employment policies or practices that have a disparate impact on a protected group. Ricci v. DeStefano significantly affects the interpretation of both of these theories of discrimination.

Ricci adopts a restrictive interpretation of the disparate impact theory that is inconsistent with Congressional intent and purpose, and signals that intentional discrimination is more important than …