Employment Discrimination

This course will examine legal responses to the barriers to workplace equality that are faced by minority groups. The course will survey the relevant doctrine, focusing primarily on federal employment discrimination statutes, but also addressing more expansive antidiscrimination protections under some state statutes, and local ordinances. Covered topics include sexual and racial harassment, sexual orientation discrimination, and affirmative interventions aimed at increasing the minority group and/or female representation in certain job categories or segments of the labor market. In addition to surveying the doctrine as it stands and as it has developed over time, we will also explore the doctrinal and conceptual difficulties inherent in identifying invidious discrimination and in devising appropriate remedies. The elements used in grading will be class participation, and, at the student's option, either a series of reflection papers or a single final paper on a topic to be determined in consultation with Professor Ford. After the term begins, students accepted into the course can transfer, with consent of the instructor, from section (01) into section (02), which meets the R requirement. If more than 35 students wish to enroll, students should contact instructor to be placed on a waitlist. Instructor will determine final enrollment.