It was to achieve equality of employment opportunities and remove barriers that have operated in the past to favor an identifiable group of white employees over other employees. The objective of Congress in the enactment of Title VII is plain from the language of the statute. We granted the writ in this case to resolve the question whether an employer is prohibited by the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Title VII, from requiring a high school education or passing of a standardized general intelligence test as a condition of employment in or transfer to jobs when (a) neither standard is shown to be significantly related to successful job performance, (b) both requirements operate to disqualify Negroes at a substantially higher rate than white applicants, and (c) the jobs in question formerly had been filled only by white employees as part of a long-standing practice of giving preference to whites. CHIEF JUSTICE BURGER 1 delivered the opinion of the Court. In this case, the Court ruled unanimously in favor of the black employees, endorsing an early version of the differential-effects conception of racial discrimination. In the latter conception (later known as “disparate impact”), if a company were to require a high school diploma as a condition of employment, and the requirement operated to disqualify black applicants in larger percentages than whites, the requirement would be presumed to be an instance of unlawful discrimination. At issue in the case was the fundamental question whether discrimination under the law is to be identified in terms of intentions or of differential effects-whether the law prohibits only intentionally discriminatory practices by a given enterprise, or also prohibits practices, irrespective of intent, that yield differential outcomes for groups defined by any of the specified classifications. Section 703(h) permits employers, for purposes of hiring or promotion, “to give and to act upon the results of any professionally developed ability test provided that such test, its administration, or action upon the results is not designed, intended, or used to discriminate” by any of the aforementioned classifications.īased on these provisions, a group of black employees brought suit against the Duke Power Company, alleging that the company’s practice of requiring, as a condition of employment or reassignment within the company, a high school diploma or a passing score on an intelligence test constituted unlawful discrimination. ![]() Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits private employers from discriminating against employees or applicants for employment on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.
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