Employment Discrimination - Making the Punishment Fit the Crime: The Eighth Circuits Treatment of Dual Motive Cases - Bibbs v. Block

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|During the congressional deliberations regarding the standard of causation to be applied in a discrimination case, one senator commented, "If anyone ever had an action that was motivated by a single cause, he is a different kind of animal from any I know of." Despite this early recognition of the potential for dual motives, the Supreme Court has not yet determined the proper standard of causation to be used in a dual motive individual disparate treatment case. In class actions, which may involve different motives for the employer's treatment of particular individuals, the Supreme Court has separated the issues of liability and remedy...