TITLE 42 - THE PUBLIC
HEALTH AND WELFARE
CHAPTER 21 - CIVIL RIGHTS
SUBCHAPTER VI - EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
42 U.S.C. Section
2000e-2. Unlawful employment practices
(a) Employer practices
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer
-
(1) to fail or refuse to hire or to discharge any
individual,
or otherwise to discriminate against any individual with
respect
to his compensation, terms, conditions, or privileges of
employment, because of such individual's race, color,
religion,
sex, or national origin; or
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify his employees or
applicants for employment in any way which would deprive or
tend
to deprive any individual of employment opportunities or
otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee,
because of
such individual's race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin.
(b) Employment agency
practices
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an
employment
agency to fail or refuse to refer for employment, or
otherwise to
discriminate against, any individual because of his race,
color,
religion, sex, or national origin, or to classify or refer
for
employment any individual on the basis of his race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin.
(c) Labor organization
practices
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for a labor
organization -
(1) to exclude or to expel from its membership, or otherwise
to
discriminate against, any individual because of his race,
color,
religion, sex, or national origin;
(2) to limit, segregate, or classify its membership or
applicants for membership, or to classify or fail or refuse
to
refer for employment any individual, in any way which would
deprive or tend to deprive any individual of employment
opportunities, or would limit such employment opportunities
or
otherwise adversely affect his status as an employee or as
an
applicant for employment, because of such individual's race,
color, religion, sex, or national origin; or
(3) to cause or attempt to cause an employer to discriminate
against an individual in violation of this section.
(d) Training programs
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for any
employer,
labor organization, or joint labor-management committee
controlling
apprenticeship or other training or retraining, including
on-the-job training programs to discriminate against any
individual
because of his race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin in
admission to, or employment in, any program established to
provide
apprenticeship or other training.
(e) Businesses or
enterprises with personnel qualified on basis of
religion, sex, or national origin; educational institutions
with
personnel of particular religion
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, (1)
it
shall not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer
to
hire and employ employees, for an employment agency to
classify, or
refer for employment any individual, for a labor
organization to
classify its membership or to classify or refer for
employment any
individual, or for an employer, labor organization, or joint
labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship or
other
training or retraining programs to admit or employ any
individual
in any such program, on the basis of his religion, sex, or
national
origin in those certain instances where religion, sex, or
national
origin is a bona fide occupational qualification reasonably
necessary to the normal operation of that particular
business or
enterprise, and (2) it shall not be an unlawful employment
practice
for a school, college, university, or other educational
institution
or institution of learning to hire and employ employees of a
particular religion if such school, college, university, or
other
educational institution or institution of learning is, in
whole or
in substantial part, owned, supported, controlled, or
managed by a
particular religion or by a particular religious
corporation,
association, or society, or if the curriculum of such
school,
college, university, or other educational institution or
institution of learning is directed toward the propagation
of a
particular religion.
(f) Members of Communist
Party or Communist-action or
Communist-front organizations
As used in this subchapter, the phrase "unlawful employment
practice" shall not be deemed to include any action or
measure
taken by an employer, labor organization, joint
labor-management
committee, or employment agency with respect to an
individual who
is a member of the Communist Party of the United States or
of any
other organization required to register as a
Communist-action or
Communist-front organization by final order of the
Subversive
Activities Control Board pursuant to the Subversive
Activities
Control Act of 1950 [50 U.S.C. 781 et seq.].
(g) National security
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, it
shall
not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to
fail or
refuse to hire and employ any individual for any position,
for an
employer to discharge any individual from any position, or
for an
employment agency to fail or refuse to refer any individual
for
employment in any position, or for a labor organization to
fail or
refuse to refer any individual for employment in any
position, if -
(1) the occupancy of
such position, or access to the premises
in or upon which any part of the duties of such position
is
performed or is to be performed, is subject to any
requirement
imposed in the interest of the national security of the
United
States under any security program in effect pursuant to
or
administered under any statute of the United States or
any
Executive order of the President; and
(2) such individual has not fulfilled or has ceased to
fulfill
that requirement.
(h) Seniority or merit system; quantity or quality of
production;
ability tests; compensation based on sex and authorized by
minimum wage provisions
Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter, it
shall
not be an unlawful employment practice for an employer to
apply
different standards of compensation, or different terms,
conditions, or privileges of employment pursuant to a bona
fide
seniority or merit system, or a system which measures
earnings by
quantity or quality of production or to employees who work
in
different locations, provided that such differences are not
the
result of an intention to discriminate because of race,
color,
religion, sex, or national origin, nor shall it be an
unlawful
employment practice for an employer 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 because of race,
color,
religion, sex or national origin. It shall not be an
unlawful
employment practice under this subchapter for any employer
to
differentiate upon the basis of sex in determining the
amount of
the wages or compensation paid or to be paid to employees of
such
employer if such differentiation is authorized by the
provisions of
section 206(d) of title 29.
(i) Businesses or
enterprises extending preferential treatment to
Indians
Nothing contained in this subchapter shall apply to any
business
or enterprise on or near an Indian reservation with respect
to any
publicly announced employment practice of such business or
enterprise under which a preferential treatment is given to
any
individual because he is an Indian living on or near a
reservation.
(j) Preferential
treatment not to be granted on account of existing
number or percentage imbalance
Nothing contained in this subchapter shall be interpreted to
require any employer, employment agency, labor organization,
or
joint labor-management committee subject to this subchapter
to
grant preferential treatment to any individual or to any
group
because of the race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin of
such individual or group on account of an imbalance which
may exist
with respect to the total number or percentage of persons of
any
race, color, religion, sex, or national origin employed by
any
employer, referred or classified for employment by any
employment
agency or labor organization, admitted to membership or
classified
by any labor organization, or admitted to, or employed in,
any
apprenticeship or other training program, in comparison with
the
total number or percentage of persons of such race, color,
religion, sex, or national origin in any community, State,
section,
or other area, or in the available work force in any
community,
State, section, or other area.
(k) Burden of proof in
disparate impact cases
(1)(A) An unlawful employment practice based on disparate
impact
is established under this subchapter only if -
(i) a complaining party
demonstrates that a respondent uses a
particular employment practice that causes a disparate
impact on
the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin and
the respondent fails to demonstrate that the challenged
practice
is job related for the position in question and
consistent with
business necessity; or
(ii) the complaining party makes the demonstration
described in
subparagraph (C) with respect to an alternative
employment
practice and the respondent refuses to adopt such
alternative
employment practice.
(B)(i) With respect to
demonstrating that a particular employment
practice causes a disparate impact as described in
subparagraph
(A)(i), the complaining party shall demonstrate that each
particular challenged employment practice causes a disparate
impact, except that if the complaining party can demonstrate
to the
court that the elements of a respondent's decisionmaking
process
are not capable of separation for analysis, the
decisionmaking
process may be analyzed as one employment practice.
(ii) If the respondent demonstrates that a specific
employment
practice does not cause the disparate impact, the respondent
shall
not be required to demonstrate that such practice is
required by
business necessity.
(C) The demonstration referred to by subparagraph (A)(ii)
shall
be in accordance with the law as it existed on June 4, 1989,
with
respect to the concept of "alternative employment practice".
(2) A demonstration that an employment practice is required
by
business necessity may not be used as a defense against a
claim of
intentional discrimination under this subchapter.
(3) Notwithstanding any other provision of this subchapter,
a
rule barring the employment of an individual who currently
and
knowingly uses or possesses a controlled substance, as
defined in
schedules I and II of section 102(6) of the Controlled
Substances
Act (21 U.S.C. 802(6)), other than the use or possession of
a drug
taken under the supervision of a licensed health care
professional,
or any other use or possession authorized by the Controlled
Substances Act [21 U.S.C. 801 et seq.] or any other
provision of
Federal law, shall be considered an unlawful employment
practice
under this subchapter only if such rule is adopted or
applied with
an intent to discriminate because of race, color, religion,
sex, or
national origin.
(l) Prohibition of
discriminatory use of test scores
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for a
respondent, in
connection with the selection or referral of applicants or
candidates for employment or promotion, to adjust the scores
of,
use different cutoff scores for, or otherwise alter the
results of,
employment related tests on the basis of race, color,
religion,
sex, or national origin.
(m) Impermissible
consideration of race, color, religion, sex, or
national origin in employment practices
Except as otherwise provided in this subchapter, an unlawful
employment practice is established when the complaining
party
demonstrates that race, color, religion, sex, or national
origin
was a motivating factor for any employment practice, even
though
other factors also motivated the practice.
(n) Resolution of
challenges to employment practices implementing
litigated or consent judgments or orders
(1)(A) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, and
except as
provided in paragraph (2), an employment practice that
implements
and is within the scope of a litigated or consent judgment
or order
that resolves a claim of employment discrimination under the
Constitution or Federal civil rights laws may not be
challenged
under the circumstances described in subparagraph (B).
(B) A practice described in subparagraph (A) may not be
challenged in a claim under the Constitution or Federal
civil
rights laws -
(i) by a person who,
prior to the entry of the judgment or
order described in subparagraph (A), had -
(I) actual notice of the proposed judgment or order
sufficient to apprise such person that such judgment or
order
might adversely affect the interests and legal rights of
such
person and that an opportunity was available to present
objections to such judgment or order by a future date
certain;
and
(II) a reasonable opportunity to present objections to
such
judgment or order; or
(ii) by a person whose
interests were adequately represented by
another person who had previously challenged the
judgment or
order on the same legal grounds and with a similar
factual
situation, unless there has been an intervening change
in law or
fact.
(2) Nothing in this
subsection shall be construed to -
(A) alter the standards for intervention under rule 24 of
the
Federal Rules of Civil Procedure or apply to the rights of
parties who have successfully intervened pursuant to such
rule in
the proceeding in which the parties intervened;
(B) apply to the rights of parties to the action in which a
litigated or consent judgment or order was entered, or of
members
of a class represented or sought to be represented in such
action, or of members of a group on whose behalf relief was
sought in such action by the Federal Government;
(C) prevent challenges to a litigated or consent judgment or
order on the ground that such judgment or order was obtained
through collusion or fraud, or is transparently invalid or
was
entered by a court lacking subject matter jurisdiction; or
(D) authorize or permit the denial to any person of the due
process of law required by the Constitution.
(3) Any action not
precluded under this subsection that
challenges an employment consent judgment or order described
in
paragraph (1) shall be brought in the court, and if possible
before
the judge, that entered such judgment or order. Nothing in
this
subsection shall preclude a transfer of such action pursuant
to
section 1404 of title 28.
-SOURCE-
(Pub. L. 88-352, title VII, Sec. 703, July 2, 1964, 78 Stat.
255;
Pub. L. 92-261, Sec. 8(a), (b), Mar. 24, 1972, 86 Stat. 109;
Pub.
L. 102-166, title I, Secs. 105(a), 106, 107(a), 108, Nov.
21, 1991,
105 Stat. 1074-1076.)
