Welcome to Employment Discrimination Guide
Employment Discrimination History Article
. For a permanent link to this article, or to bookmark it for further reading, click here.
You may also listen to this article by using the following controls.
Employment Discrimination Cases That Have Helped Shape Today’s Laws
from:Employment discrimination is an issue that touches many Americans. The landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964 did away with segregation and ensured working rights for African Americans and included the famous Title VII which prohibits employers to discriminate based on race, sex, religion or national origin. Since that time, a number of employment discrimination cases have made their way to the Supreme Court and have effectively changed how employment discrimination law is practiced today. In this article, we’ll take a look at a few of the employment discrimination cases that were judged by the Supreme Court and have shaped the law as we know it today.
The first of the employment discrimination cases of note, Griggs v. Duke Power Company, dates from 1971 and was an important victory for African Americans. The Court decided that it is unlawful to expect that certain educational requirements be met or to administer intelligence tests that are not related to the job to be filled. In many cases, these requirements or intelligence tests were an underhanded way to exclude African Americans from being considered for employment.
The next of the important employment discrimination cases was an important victory for pregnant teachers – 1974’s Cleveland Board of Education v. LaFleur. At that time, public school boards had what would be considered archaic rules about at what point pregnant teachers would be forced to take their maternity leave. The Cleveland School Board required that pregnant teachers take unpaid leave five months before the expected childbirth and would not be permitted to return until the semester after the child reached the age of three months. Another school board noted in the case, in Chesterfield County, Virginia, required teachers to take unpaid leave four months and to give notice six months before the birth and would not be eligible for the next school year after the first day of school. The Court recognized that each pregnant teacher’s case is different and that many are able to continue working through the end of the pregnancy, making these imposed rules by the school boards violations of the pregnant teachers’ guarantee of due process.
Many of the employment discrimination cases have to do with sexual discrimination. In 1986, the case of Meritor Savings Bank v. Vinson found that a claim of a “hostile environment” can be considered a form of sexual discrimination. The Oncale v. Sundowner Offshore Serv., Inc. case in 1987 found that same-sex harassment can be considered a form of sexual harassment as covered by Title VII. In 1988, the case of Faragher v. City of Boca Raton found that an employer may be found liable for sexual discrimination caused by a supervisor, but liability will be dependant on the reasonableness of both the employers and the employee’s conduct.
Employment Discrimination History News
African American Employees Claim Race Discrimination & Discriminatory Employment Practices In Law Suit against Anne ...
African American Employees Claim Race Discrimination & Discriminatory Employment Practices In Lawsuit Against Anne Arundel County Public Library Suit filed in the Circuit Court for Anne Arundel County, Maryland. By George Rose, Esq., Counsel for Plaintiff's. ...
Read more...Partner Sues Kleiner Perkins For Alleged Gender Discrimination
A junior partner at famed venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers has sued the firm charging gender discrimination.
Read more...Live blog: Jacksonville City Council to discuss adding gay rights to human rights ordinance
The City Council will meet to discuss adding a bill that would include sexual orientation in the human rights ordinance. The ordinance prohibits discrimination in housing, employment and public accommodations based on race, age, gender and disability, among other categories. read more
Read more...Employers advised on considering arrest records
Hiring managers have new guidelines for weighing job applicants’ arrest and conviction records, according to the U.S. agency devoted to federal employment-discrimination laws.
Read more...No minority officers among Lower Merion's recent police promotions
When a Lower Merion officer last year raised questions about the police department’s record of hiring and promoting minority officers, he noted that no African-American officer had attained the rank of sergeant or above in its history.
Read more...