Disparate Impact Is Not Unconstitutional

Michael Evan Gold, Cornell University

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Suggested Citation

Gold, M. E. (2011). Disparate impact is not unconstitutional [Electronic version]. Texas Journal on Civil Liberties & Civil Rights, 16(2), 171-187.

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Copyright held by the author.

Abstract

[Excerpt] Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 19641 ("Title VII" or the "Act") prohibits employers, employment agencies, and labor unions from discriminating against workers or denying them employment opportunities on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. The Act created the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which receives, investigates, and conciliates charges of discrimination and occasionally sues to enforce the Act. Except where the context demands otherwise, I will use "employers" to stand for all of the agents who are prohibited from discriminating, "race" to stand for all of the prohibited bases of discrimination, "black applicants" to stand for all of the classes protected by the Act, "white applicants" to stand for all of the comparators to whom protected classes compare themselves, and "hiring" to stand for all of the employment contexts to which the Act applies.