The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said on June 9 that Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) guidelines on disparate-impact liability are unconstitutional because they pressure employers to make employment decisions based on race.
That appraisal came in a new legal opinion issued by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), which provides legal advice to the president and the executive branch. Its opinions are considered binding within the executive branch.
The opinion ends the federal government’s decades-old interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which held that discriminatory intent may be assumed in some situations without being proven….