Literature Network » Oliver Wendell Holmes

Discrimination by the numbers: Lies, damned lies, and statistics

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From: The Freeman
Date: 19981001
Author:Levy, Robert A

More than a century ago, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes observed: "For the rational study of the law . . . the man of the future is the man of statistics." Lamentably, our lawmakers learned their lesson only too well. Over the past three decades they have co-opted statistics, stretching its already malleable bounds to create an incoherent legal doctrine under the rubric of "disparate impact."

As codified in the 1991 Civil Rights Act, an employee can make out a prima facie case of race or gender discrimination based on no more than a statistical disparity between the composition of a company's ...

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