Article
RICCI Glitch? The Unexpected Appearance of Transferred Intent in Title VII
Loy. L. Rev.
(2009)
Abstract
In the case of Ricci v. DeStefano, the Supreme Court officially opened the door to what this Article identifies as a theory of “transferred intent” jurisprudence under Title VII. The principle of transferred intent, borrowed from tort and criminal law, has never before been seen as factoring into Title VII antidiscrimination jurisprudence. In Ricci, the Supreme Court assumed that a city’s refusal to promote firefighters qualifying for promotion based on exams that appeared to disproportionately screen out members of minority groups amounted to deliberate discrimination, irrespective of their individual races or whether their individual races were actually taken into account. This Article reveals that the Supreme Court actually decided a very important issue that has split and confused courts, but failed to explicitly acknowledge that it was doing so. It argues that under the “transferred intent” theory of Title VII implicitly advanced in Ricci, future plaintiffs adversely affected by a decision that is “race-conscious” might be able to make out a viable case of intentional disparate treatment under Title VII if their race was not considered at all, or even if it was consciously disregarded in the decision-making process. The ramifications of a theory of transferred intent under Title VII are immense.
Disciplines
Publication Date
2009
Citation Information
Kerri L. Stone. "RICCI Glitch? The Unexpected Appearance of Transferred Intent in Title VII" Loy. L. Rev. Vol. 55 (2009) p. 751 Available at: http://works.bepress.com/kerri-stone/15/