This course will explore the barriers to workplace equality faced by particular groups, and the laws that touch upon those barriers. Specifically, we will examine both constitutional and statutory efforts to curtail discrimination including the Equal Protection Clause, Title VII, the ADA, the ADEA, the Equal Pay Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act, and others. Covered topics include sexual and racial harassment, sexual orientation discrimination, and affirmative action and other interventions aimed at increasing the minority 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 study the array of social forces that led to the expansion of these laws and the recent retrenchment away from them.
Readings will include statistical data; however, no advanced knowledge of mathematics or statistics is required. Finally, we will examine some aspects of practice in this area of law, including administrative agency practice and exhaustion requirements.