Discrimination vs. employee aptitude

[dps]

I've always wondered about when you can discriminate, say based on sex. Clearly you don't have to hire a guy who wants to work at your strip club - so there is *some* kind of allowable discrimination based on gender, or even attractiveness.

What about your restaurant that employ's hot young women in skimpy clothes as their waitresses? Can you refuse to hire a man applying for that job? What about a homely woman, or a fat one?

Berkut, for cases of age, sex, religious, or national origin discrimination, if the characteristic is a "Bona Fide Occupational Qualification," then the employer may discriminate based on it.

So strip clubs, churches, and ethnic restaurants are safe.  IIRC, the law as written does not allow race to be used as a BFOQ, but there is at least one appellate decision that effectively treated it as such.

If you were making a biopic of, say, Lyndon Johnson, you could legally refuse to cast a black actor in the role.

I can't really think off-hand of any other situations in which race could be a legitimate reason to disqualify an applicant.  What was the situation in the case you mentioned?

[ulmont]

I've always wondered about when you can discriminate, say based on sex. Clearly you don't have to hire a guy who wants to work at your strip club - so there is *some* kind of allowable discrimination based on gender, or even attractiveness.

What about your restaurant that employ's hot young women in skimpy clothes as their waitresses? Can you refuse to hire a man applying for that job? What about a homely woman, or a fat one?

Berkut, for cases of age, sex, religious, or national origin discrimination, if the characteristic is a "Bona Fide Occupational Qualification," then the employer may discriminate based on it.

So strip clubs, churches, and ethnic restaurants are safe.  IIRC, the law as written does not allow race to be used as a BFOQ, but there is at least one appellate decision that effectively treated it as such.

If you were making a biopic of, say, Lyndon Johnson, you could legally refuse to cast a black actor in the role.

I can't really think off-hand of any other situations in which race could be a legitimate reason to disqualify an applicant.  What was the situation in the case you mentioned?

A black prison guard in a boot camp style prison was promoted to lieutenant.  Wittmer v. Peters, 87 F.3d 916 (7th Cir. 1996).

"The black lieutenant is needed because the black inmates are believed unlikely to play the correctional game of brutal drill sergeant and brutalized recruit unless there are some blacks in authority in the camp. This is not just speculation, but is backed up by expert evidence that the plaintiffs did not rebut."
http://www.projectposner.org/case/1996/87F3d916