“We were getting people with 60 hours of college credit who were reading at a...
So asks Charlie Roberts, who ran the testing division for the Chicago Police Department from 1995 to 1999, upon learning that the city is simply going to give up on testing because of the threat of...
View ArticleOur growing government
Notwithstanding Barack Obama’s claim of a spending freeze on discretionary spending, Roger Clegg finds that the Obama Justice Department’s proposed budget calls for 22 new attorneys to bring...
View ArticleGotham firefighters and racial hiring
At City Journal, Heather Mac Donald has an important article on the federal courts’ willingness to second-guess in great detail the hiring practices of the New York City fire department, in search of...
View ArticleEEOC sues over employer use of credit record in hiring
Following extensive rumblings of an impending crackdown, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has sued Kaplan, the private education company, over its alleged policy of considering applicants’...
View ArticleApril 23 roundup
Fearful of adverse Supreme Court ruling, Department of Justice said to have exercised pressure on city of St. Paul to buckle in housing-disparate-impact case [Kevin Funnell] Justice Janice Rogers...
View ArticleWill lawmakers slip disparate impact, punitive damages into Title VI?
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal education spending and other programs, does not currently allow private litigants to sue demanding...
View ArticleHUD vs. Westchester: what’s at stake
I’ve got a new piece at Reason on the long-running dispute between the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development and the government of Westchester County in suburban NYC. Claiming that...
View ArticleWill SCOTUS finally rule on “disparate-impact” housing theory?
Under the “disparate impact” theory of housing discrimination, private business decisions or local government policies not motivated by race are deemed unlawful anyway because they have a differential...
View ArticleMount Holly Gardens: ‘Til we moot again
It looks as if someone really doesn’t want the Obama administration’s treasured but shaky “housing disparate impact” theory to come under review by the Supreme Court [Josh Blackman on reports of...
View ArticleJanuary 3 roundup
Taxpayers on hook: “N.J. boy left blind and brain-damaged after being beaten by father awarded $166M by jury” [Newark Star-Ledger] “Psychic Love Spell Center stole my money, lawyer alleges in lawsuit”...
View ArticleBanking and finance roundup
Still money left in that piggy bank: Justice Department shakes $1.7 billion out of J.P. Morgan because its custody wing kept handling a primary Bernie Madoff account while a distant equity desk grew...
View ArticleDoJ: school discipline must follow disparate-impact standards
The Justice Department and Department of Education have sent out a Dear Colleague letter discouraging schools from pursuing strict discipline policies against student misbehavior, especially against...
View ArticleSchool suspensions by the (racial) numbers
Caleb Brown interviews me on the very, very bad new federal guidelines demanding that schools avoid disciplinary practices with “disparate impact” — in practice, those that result in...
View ArticleJanuary 17 roundup
Among convict’s assortment of doomed pro se arguments: blaming Nike for not warning that its shoes might be injurious when used in stomping a victim [Oregon, Lowering the Bar] Reinstated University of...
View ArticleNew racial school-discipline guidelines, cont’d
My colleague Andrew Coulson: Over the past several years, University of Rochester professor Joshua Kinsler has explored this question [of racial disparity in school discipline] using uniquely rich...
View Article“Disparate impact” doctrine
Michael Barone has a refresher on its appearance in areas from school discipline to housing to hiring, and how it pressures actors to take more account of race and ethnicity rather than less in their...
View ArticleEEOC roundup
Federal judge in Buffalo “dismisses EEOC’s largest pending pattern or practice lawsuit for failure to investigate” [Gerald Maatman, Jr. and Jennifer Riley, Seyfarth Shaw] U.S. magistrate judge in...
View ArticleBanking and finance roundup
In banking and FCPA cases, targets of DOJ prosecution are disproportionately firms domiciled abroad, and other countries do notice that [Jesse Eisinger, NYT "DealBook"] “Los Angeles’ Confused Suit...
View Article“Enviro groups: NC swine farms discriminate against minorities”
Disparate impact by way of location? “Four environmental groups announced a federal complaint Thursday alleging that North Carolina’s hog farms discriminate against ethnic minorities because the stench...
View ArticleJudge rules against housing disparate impact theory
The Obama Administration has repeatedly dodged cases in fear of judicial review of its controversial application of the disparate impact theory to mortgage lending and other aspects of the housing...
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