Employment Discrimination - Promotion Tests and Statistical Evidence of Disparate Impact: The Eighth Circuit's Position

Abstract

INTRODUCTION|When Congress enacted Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 it created a federal statutory right of private and public civil actions to mitigate past discrimination in employment based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.|Due to the large number of Title VII employment discrimination cases adjudicated by the Eighth Circuit during 1980, this article will limit its attention to a review of Fire Fighters Institute v. St. Louis, a case which highlights the Eighth Circuits' use of statistical analysis in determining the existence of discrimination. Fire Fighters involved a dispute over the validity of a promotion examination, the results of which operated to discriminate against Black applicants. The court found the test invalid, as the city had not demonstrated that the test properly measured how qualified the candidates were for the desired position. To understand the significance of this case, one needs to be aware of the elements of an employment discrimination...