Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Flowchart of the Day: The McDonnell-Douglas Burden-Shifting Framework for Individual Disparate Treatment Cases after Desert Palace v. Costa

Click to enlarge.


PFC = prima facie case

LNR = legitimate, non-discriminatory reason

Price-Waterhouse = Price Waterhouse v. Hopkins, a mixed-motive discrimination case--if discrimination is reason among other "legitimate" reasons, then Plaintiff can still win.

So much of what we discussed in Empirical Perspectives on Gender Discrimination Law this semester tracked employment discrimination law paradigms: individual disparate treatment, systemic disparate treatment, disparate impact, sexual harassment hostile work environment. I suggested to the Prof that next semester, for the benefit of the non-lawyers (or really, anyone who did not take employment discrimination), to distribute little primers on basic concepts of ED. They're important to keep distinct, because they're different complaints with different evidentiary burdens.

Unfortunately, or rather fortunately for me, she does not know that I blog. I don't advertise this hobby at any of my home institutions. I will probably send this via email along with my final paper.