Employment Discrimination: Law and Theory

As with past editions of this casebook, decisions of the Supreme Court continue to alter the landscape of employment discrimination law. The current Court has handed down landmark constitutional decisions on affirmative action, abortion, and religious freedom, all of which have far-reaching implications for employment discrimination law. The constitutional standards for affirmative action, addressed in the context of higher education, plainly apply to government employers and have powerful implications for statutory prohibitions applicable to private employers. So, too, other developments, such as the burst of public allegations of sexual misconduct by public figures and corporate executives, has resulted in legislation restricting arbitration of such claims and the use of nondisclosure agreements to resolve them.

While taking account of these complexities, the authors have tried to preserve the relative simplicity and compact coverage of an introductory casebook to an area of law that continues to grow more detailed and nuanced. Keeping the larger questions in view, and the controversial arguments that surround them on all sides, remains our goal. This new edition takes account of changes in the law, both obvious and subtle, tries to relate them to basic principles of fairness regardless of group membership, the need to allow employers to maintain efficient practices in the workplace, and the demands on the courts to articulate sound rules of interpretation and enforcement. See more