Opinion ID: 2470930
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Title VII Background

Text: Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e et seq., prohibits two types of employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. Disparate-treatment discrimination is prohibited by § 703(a) of the Act, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a). Such claims require that a plaintiff establish that the defendant had a discriminatory intent or motive for taking a job-related action. Ricci, 129 S.Ct. at 2672; see also 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(a) (It shall be an unlawful employment practice for an employer ... 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....). Disparate-impact discrimination is also barred by Title VII. Disparate-impact claims do not require a showing of discriminatory intent. Disparate impact occurs when an employer uses an employment practice that has a disproportionately adverse effect on protected groups. Ricci, 129 S.Ct. at 2672-73. An employer can rebut a prima facie showing of disparate impact by demonstrating that the employment practice is job-related, and the plaintiff, in turn, can rebut that showing by demonstrating that there is a less discriminatory alternative to the challenged practice. Id. The Supreme Court, in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U.S. 424, 91 S.Ct. 849, 28 L.Ed.2d 158 (1971), first interpreted § 703(a)(2) of the 1964 Act to prohibit disparate-impact discrimination. In response to some pro-defendant interpretations of disparate-impact doctrine made by the Supreme Court in Wards Cove Packing Co. v. Atonio, 490 U.S. 642, 109 S.Ct. 2115, 104 L.Ed.2d 733 (1989), Congress enacted the Civil Rights Act of 1991, Pub.L. No. 102-166, 105 Stat. 1071. [32] The 1991 Act added a new section codifying the disparate-impact prohibition. See 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(k). A separate section of Title VII, § 706(g), 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g), addresses the equitable remedies a court may order after liability is proven. The statute provides courts with broad equitable powers: If the court finds that the respondent has intentionally engaged in or is intentionally engaging in an unlawful employment practice charged in the complaint, the court may enjoin the respondent from engaging in such unlawful employment practice, and order such affirmative action as may be appropriate, which may include, but is not limited to, reinstatement or hiring of employees, with or without back pay (payable by the employer, employment agency, or labor organization, as the case may be, responsible for the unlawful employment practice), or any other equitable relief as the court deems appropriate.... Id. § 2000e-5(g)(1). But some types of individualized remedies are limited to actual victims of discriminationthat is, those individuals who would not have suffered the employer's adverse employment action in a nondiscriminatory world: No order of the court shall require the admission or reinstatement of an individual as a member of a union, or the hiring, reinstatement, or promotion of an individual as an employee, or the payment to him of any back pay, if such individual was refused admission, suspended, or expelled, or was refused employment or advancement or was suspended or discharged for any reason other than discrimination on account of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.... Id. § 2000e-5(g)(2)(A); see also Int'l Broth. of Teamsters v. United States, 431 U.S. 324, 367, 97 S.Ct. 1843, 52 L.Ed.2d 396 (1977). As the Supreme Court and this Court have said, the § 703(a) liability phase and the § 706(g) remedial phase of a Title VII case are separate and must not be confused with one another. See id. at 360-61, 97 S.Ct. 1843 (distinguishing the initial, `liability' stage from the second, `remedial' stage); Cates v. Trans World Airlines, Inc., 561 F.2d 1064, 1070, 1072 (2d Cir.1977). Section 706(g), being a remedial provision and not a liability provision, does not speak to the actions of private parties; only a court is limited by it. Local No. 93, Int'l Ass'n of Firefighters, AFL-CIO C.L.C. v. City of Cleveland, 478 U.S. 501, 521, 106 S.Ct. 3063, 92 L.Ed.2d 405 (1986). Private conduct is, instead, governed by the liability provisions of § 703.