Comment by harpersealtako
5 days ago
part of the issue is that there are multiple laws and legal frameworks even at the federal level in the US that are kind of contradictory here. See "disparate impact" law, where using a neutral standard (such as a background check, or an ability test) that affects different protected groups differently can be considered illegal discrimination. 2 might be illegal, but 1 might be illegal too in the other direction! It kind of seems like the only solution is to basically maintain plausible deniability and try your hardest not to leave an auditable paper trail about any of the reasoning you use to hire a candidate or not.
Fear of disparate impact claims do not justify discrimination on the basis of protect class. This was argued all the way up to the Supreme Court: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ricci_v._DeStefano
Furthermore, disparate impact theory has been largely rolled back in recent years.
The Sheetz disparate impact case was in 2024, post Ricci. Griggs is still the law of the land even though some justices have signaled they might want to revisit it.
I'm referring to the 2025 executive orders that instructed the EEOC not to employ disparate impact theory: https://apnews.com/article/discrimination-trump-civil-rights...