YoungButEager betrays a significant but unfortunately common misunderstanding of the term “protected class” and its meaning in law.
A protected class does not refer to any particular group of people, but rather the significant categories that anti-discrimination laws apply to.
For instance, religion is a protected class, but not any particular religion. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, prohibits discrimination based on religion because it is a protected class, or classification, that the law applies to. So it protects everyone against religious discrimination. It does not just protect Muslims but not Mormons.
If it protected only particular groups of people it would be unconstitutional, because the constitution mandates equal protection under the law.
Some of the confusion may stem from other uses of the word “class”, such as middle class, upper class and working class. These refer to specific groups of people. But in the Civil Rights Act the usage of the term “class” is completely different.
YoungButEager mentions hiring quotas, but these are already illegal, and have only been applied in the past as a remedy where significant and ongoing discrimination has been proven, and a quota may be applied for a limited time by a federal judge. An example is in the state of Alabama, where the state had not hired a single non-white trooper in its history, and in the 1980s a consent decree forced them to hire one non-white trooper for every new white recruit, but this was only for a limited period of time. Otherwise, hiring quotas are mostly a myth.
YoungButEager says he will only hire white males. “It's my firm and I'm not going out of my way if the 'protected class' can burn me for three years in the media while waiting for a B.S. trial.”
YoungButEager’s partners should look at his misinformed attitudes and philosophy critically, because going forward, they present a significant risk and an ongoing liability for their enterprise.
A protected class does not refer to any particular group of people, but rather the significant categories that anti-discrimination laws apply to.
For instance, religion is a protected class, but not any particular religion. The Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, prohibits discrimination based on religion because it is a protected class, or classification, that the law applies to. So it protects everyone against religious discrimination. It does not just protect Muslims but not Mormons.
If it protected only particular groups of people it would be unconstitutional, because the constitution mandates equal protection under the law.
Some of the confusion may stem from other uses of the word “class”, such as middle class, upper class and working class. These refer to specific groups of people. But in the Civil Rights Act the usage of the term “class” is completely different.
YoungButEager mentions hiring quotas, but these are already illegal, and have only been applied in the past as a remedy where significant and ongoing discrimination has been proven, and a quota may be applied for a limited time by a federal judge. An example is in the state of Alabama, where the state had not hired a single non-white trooper in its history, and in the 1980s a consent decree forced them to hire one non-white trooper for every new white recruit, but this was only for a limited period of time. Otherwise, hiring quotas are mostly a myth.
YoungButEager says he will only hire white males. “It's my firm and I'm not going out of my way if the 'protected class' can burn me for three years in the media while waiting for a B.S. trial.”
YoungButEager’s partners should look at his misinformed attitudes and philosophy critically, because going forward, they present a significant risk and an ongoing liability for their enterprise.