Employment laws and their intended beneficiaries

EMPLOYMENT LAWS -- WHO ARE THEY for?

Today, the United States has emerged as one of the most just and fair societies in the modern world. However, the history of the American nation includes centuries of persecution, exploitation, oppression, and deliberate disenfranchisement of many different types of minority members of society. That includes almost three full centuries of institutionalized forced slavery of black Africans followed by almost another full century of tremendous social oppression of the slaves formally emancipated in 1865 and of the first several generations of their descendants.

Until the second half of the 20th century, it was routine practice for many business proprietors, especially in the southern states, to post signs reading "We Do Not Serve Negroes"; likewise, signs reading "No Jews or Irish Need Apply" were frequently posted by employers next to their "Help Wanted" signs in shop windows (Edwards, Wallenberg, & Lineberry, 2008). Those injustices were finally resolved, at least in large part, by the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Today, those practices are unheard of because federal employment laws strictly forbid discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religious affiliation, national origin, gender, and age. Not all minority groups are protected by federal law from employment discrimination but many states have enacted comparable protections for homosexuals and transgender individuals in addition to expanding the nature of the protections recognized by federal law in connection with other minorities (Dershowitz, 2002; Halbert & Ingulli, 2007).

Racial, Ethnic, Religious, and other Federally-Recognized Suspect Classifications

A crucial series of U.S. Supreme Court decisions in the second half of the 20th century effectively ended discrimination against what it defined as "suspect classifications" such as race, ethnicity, and religion, among others to whom it granted less comprehensive qualified protection of federal law (Dershowitz, 2002; Halbert & Ingulli, 2007). Many of the gaps in protection, such as afforded under Supreme Court precedent to members of suspect classes have since been strengthened by various acts of Congress, such as those in connection with employment discrimination against disabled workers, and those over 45 years of age (Edwards, Wallenberg, & Lineberry, 2008). Undoubtedly, employment (and other forms of) discrimination against members of suspect classifications still occur even today; however, whereas in the past employers did so very openly and unashamedly, that is no longer possible today (Dershowitz, 2002; Halbert & Ingulli, 2007).

Conclusion