Race & National Origin

Executive Order No. 11478 prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin by federal contractors and contractors performing under federally assisted construction contracts.

The Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution limit the power of the federal and state governments to discriminate. The private sector is not directly constrained by the Constitution.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 provides a remedy for intentional race discrimination in employment by private employers and state and local public employers. The Civil Rights Act of 1871 generally applies to public employment or employment involving state action prohibiting deprivation of rights secured by the federal Constitution or federal laws through action under color of law.

Title VII is the principal federal statute with regard to employment discrimination prohibiting unlawful employment discrimination by public and private employers, labor organizations, training programs and employment agencies based on race or color, religion, sex, and national origin. Retaliation is also prohibited by Title VII against any person for opposing any practice forbidden by statute, or for making a charge, testifying, assisting, or participating in a proceeding under the statute. The Civil Rights Act of 1991 expanded the damages available to Title VII cases and granted Title VII plaintiffs the right to jury trial.

The Migrant and Seasonal Agricultural Worker Protection Act (MSPA) safeguards most migrant and seasonal agricultural workers in their interactions with farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, agricultural associations, and providers of migrant housing. However, some farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, agricultural associations, and providers of migrant housing are exempt from MSPA under limited circumstances. The MSPA requires farm labor contractors, agricultural employers, and agricultural associations who recruit, solicit, hire, employ, furnish, transport, or house agricultural workers, as well as providers of migrant housing, to meet certain minimum requirements in their dealings with migrant and seasonal agricultural workers.

Under IRCA, employers may hire only persons who may legally work in the U.S., i.e., citizens and nationals of the U.S. and aliens authorized to work in the U.S. The employer must verify the identity and employment eligibility of anyone to be hired, which includes completing the Employment Eligibility Verification Form (I-9). Employers must keep each I-9 on file for at least three years, or one year after employment ends, whichever is longer.

The Civil Rights Act of 1866 covers Jewish people because, at the time the Act was passed, Jewish people were considered to be a distinct race and therefore constituted a group that Congress intended to protect.

Section 1981 of the Civil Rights Act of 1866 protects from discrimination identifiable classes of persons who are subjected to intentional discrimination solely because of their ancestry or ethnic characteristics.

Title VII does prohibit discrimination based on national origin, but not based on citizenship.

An employer cannot discriminate against a person because of his interracial association with another, such as by an interracial marriage.

Based on Title VII, employers cannot require that employees pass written examination in order to get a promotion where the examination is not related to the job and disproportionately excludes African-Americans.

Denying or limiting promotional opportunities to a protected class on the basis of the employer's belief that members of that class are not interested in being promoted is a discriminatory practice.

Congress intends to confer broad protection upon employees covered by Title VII.

One type of age-related employment discrimination that may be alleged: Discrimination by Disparate Impact - a facially neutral employment policy adversely affects the members of a protected group. Focuses on the consequences of an employment practice, not the purpose or motive.

An employer cannot require that an employee or an applicant pass a standardized general intelligence test as a condition of employment, where the test has an adverse impact on African-Americans and was not job-related.