Griggs v. Duke Power Co.

Background

A group of Black employees at a power plant sued their employer after learning that the company required a high school diploma and, later, two general aptitude tests for transfer into better-paying departments. Historically the company assigned Black workers only to the lowest-paying department; whites filled the higher-paying "inside" jobs. The diploma rule began in 1955 and tests were added on July 2, 1965, the effective date of the federal anti-discrimination law (Title VII). The tests used included the Wonderlic and Bennett batteries and were not designed to measure ability to learn specific jobs.

Reasoning

The Court asked whether neutral-seeming rules that disqualify many Black applicants violate the federal law when they are not shown to be related to job performance. The Court held that practices fair in form but unfair in operation are forbidden. Employer intent to discriminate is not dispositive; what matters is the effect. Because the company offered no meaningful study tying the diploma or test requirements to successful performance in the jobs at issue, the requirements could not be justified. The Court relied on the enforcement agency’s interpretation that tests must be job-related and on Congress’s aim to remove barriers that perpetuate past racial advantages.

Real world impact

The decision requires employers to show that education or testing rules actually predict job success before using them when those rules screen out minority workers. Neutral qualifications that function as "built-in headwinds" for a group are unlawful unless demonstrably necessary for the job. The ruling gives enforcement agencies and courts a basis to block hiring and promotion practices that perpetuate prior racial exclusion.