CITE
42 USC Sec. 2000e-2 01/08/2008
EXPCITE
TITLE 42 - THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
CHAPTER 21 - CIVIL RIGHTS
SUBCHAPTER VI - EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES
HEAD
Sec. 2000e-2. Unlawful employment practices
STATUTE
(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.)
REFERENCES IN TEXT
The Subversive Activities Control Act of 1950, referred to in
subsec. (f), is title I (Secs. 1-32) of act Sept. 23, 1950, ch.
1024, 64 Stat. 987, as amended, which is classified principally to
subchapter I (Sec. 781 et seq.) of chapter 23 of Title 50, War and
National Defense. For complete classification of this Act to the
Code, see Tables.
The Controlled Substances Act, referred to in subsec. (k)(3), is
title II of Pub. L. 91-513, Oct. 27, 1970, 84 Stat. 1242, as
amended, which is classified principally to subchapter I (Sec. 801
et seq.) of chapter 13 of Title 21, Food and Drugs. For complete
classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title note set
out under section 801 of Title 21 and Tables.
The Federal civil rights laws, referred to in subsec. (n)(1), are
classified generally to chapter 21 (Sec. 1981 et seq.) of this
title.
The Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, referred to in subsec.
(n)(2)(A), are set out in the Appendix to Title 28, Judiciary and
Judicial Procedure.
AMENDMENTS
1991 - Subsec. (k). Pub. L. 102-166, Sec. 105(a), added subsec.
(k).
Subsec. (l). Pub. L. 102-166, Sec. 106, added subsec. (l).
Subsec. (m). Pub. L. 102-166, Sec. 107(a), added subsec. (m).
Subsec. (n). Pub. L. 102-166, Sec. 108, added subsec. (n).
1972 - Subsec. (a)(2). Pub. L. 92-261, Sec. 8(a), inserted "or
applicants for employment" after "his employees".
Subsec. (c)(2). Pub. L. 92-261, Sec. 8(b), inserted "or
applicants for membership" after "membership".
EFFECTIVE DATE OF 1991 AMENDMENT
Amendment by Pub. L. 102-166 effective Nov. 21, 1991, except as
otherwise provided, see section 402 of Pub. L. 102-166, set out as
a note under section 1981 of this title.
SUBVERSIVE ACTIVITIES CONTROL BOARD
Subversive Activities Control Board established by act Sept. 23,
1950, ch. 1024, Sec. 12, 64 Stat. 977, and ceased to operate on
June 30, 1973.