On May 24, 2010, the Supreme Court issued its decision in Lewis v. City of Chicago , a case involving questions regarding the timeliness of disparate impact discrimination claims filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. In Lewis , a group of aspiring black firefighters sued the City of Chicago over its repeated use of an employment test with racially disproportionate results to hire several new groups of firefighters over a six-year period. The city argued that the applicants, who filed their claim almost two years after the employment examination was administered, had exceeded the statutory deadline for filing claims under Title VII, while the applicants claimed that the city committed a fresh act of discrimination each time it relied upon the test to hire a new class of firefighters, thus repeatedly restarting the clock on the filing deadline. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the applicants for the firefighting positions, holding that such disparate impact claims may be brought each time an employer uses the results of a discriminatory test to hire.
This report discusses Lewis v. City of Chicago, a recent case in which the Supreme Court considered questions regarding the timeliness of disparate impact discrimination claims filed under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, or religion. In Lewis, a group of aspiring black firefighters sued the City of Chicago over its repeated use of an employment test with racially disproportionate results to hire several new groups of firefighters over a six-year period. The city argued that the applicants, who filed their claim almost two years after the employment examination was administered, had exceeded the statutory deadline for filing claims under Title VII, while the applicants claimed that the city committed a fresh act of discrimination each time it relied upon the test to hire a new class of firefighters, thus repeatedly restarting the clock on the filing deadline. In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the applicants for the firefighting positions, holding that such disparate impact claims may be brought each time an employer uses the results of a discriminatory test to hire.