The (Other) Bush Legacy
Wonder why there are suddenly so many class-action job discrimination suits? This WaPost report, tied to the new case against Costco (the big-box store labor boosters usually praise), explains:
The prominent cases are rooted, in part, in 1991 civil rights legislation that allowed victims of employment discrimination to seek punitive and compensatory damages, according to academics and lawyers who represent both employers and employees. The change makes such lawsuits potentially more lucrative for law firms, which have begun building the expertise to pursue them.
The discrimination cases come from all over the country and make a variety of claims, but some common threads run through them. The claims tend to focus on pay and promotion rather than hiring, they rely heavily on statistical evidence of race or sex disparities, and so far, most of them haven't gone to trial. In most cases, either the employer wins when a judge or an appeals court refuses to allow the case to go forward as a group action or the employees win when the class is certified and the two sides settle.
Along with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the 1991 civil rights law was one of the proudest accomplishments of the Bush I administration.