This book provides an introduction to the field of employment discrimination law, both at the abstract level of theory and at the concrete level of doctrine. It is as much an introduction for experienced lawyers and scholars who come to this field with a thorough knowledge of other aspects of the law as for law students who have just begun preparing for their careers. The leading decisions of the Supreme Court receive a comprehensive analysis, in terms both of theory and doctrine, putting them in the context of the relevant statutory provisions and other judicial decisions. This book offers three different theoretical perspectives-based on history, economics, and critical social theory-to explain both the complexities and the tensions inherent in existing law. The new edition of this book addresses several major developments in the field, which have gone in two different directions: towards broader and more general prohibitions, and at the same time, towards exceptions recognized on a variety of grounds. The broad trend is epitomized by the Supreme Court's interpretation of Title VII's prohibition against sex discrimination to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The Supreme Court took this step in the wake of constitutional decisions legitimizing gay and same-sex marriage. It also acted despite the repeated failure of bills in Congress that would have explicitly prohibited employment discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. The restrictive tendency is evident in decisions recognizing and expanding the constitutional right of religious organizations to choose ministers and teachers of faith regardless of the laws against employment discrimination. All of these major developments, and others as well, are covered in the new edition of this book.

In this volume, ten expert historians and legal scholars examine the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the first federal civil rights statute in American history. The act declared that all persons born in the United States were citizens without regard to race, color, or previous condition of slavery. Designed to give the Thirteenth Amendment practical effect as former slave states enacted laws limiting the rights of African Americans, this measure for the first time defined U.S. citizenship and the rights associated with it. Essays examine the history and legal ramifications of the act and highlight competing impulses within it, including the often-neglected Section 9, which allows the president to use the nation's military in its enforcement; an investigation of how the Thirteenth Amendment operated to overturn the Dred Scott case; and, New England's role in the passage of the act. The act is analyzed as it operated in several states such as Kentucky, Missouri, and South Carolina during Reconstruction. There is also a consideration of the act and its interpretation by the Supreme Court in its first decades. Other essays include a discussion of the act in terms of contract rights and in the context of the post-World War II Civil Rights Era as well as an analysis of the act's backward-looking and forward-looking nature. Not only is the Civil Rights Act of 1866 historically significant as the moment in Reconstruction when the federal government first sought to define national citizenship and protect civil rights, it continues to frame citizenship and rights debates and it is still used in federal lawsuits today.