Review of Laws Having Racially Disparate Impacts

Abstract Race discrimination is a global phenomenon. Sometimes, the behavior is intentional. In the U.S. context, the Fourteenth Amendment has been interpreted to protect against such activity. In many other circumstances, there is a racially discriminatory impact, that is, the behavior was not intentional. In the United States, the Civil Rights Act covers this type of discrimination. Other countries have grappled with how to handle racially disparate impact as well. The main case selection in this chapter, City Council of Pretoria v. Walker, illustrates how South Africa is handling the concept. That country is emerging from a recent history of de jure segregation against a black majority by the white minority. South Africa has a new Constitutional Court that is interpreting a new post-apartheid constitution with a detailed equality clause that covers both intentional and unintentional behavior. The Walker case implicates issues of race, class, housing segregation, and “reverse discrimination” in interesting ways, and raises the question of how the U.S. Supreme Court would handle a similar case. The notes discuss the experience of the U.S., Brazil, Canada, Europe, and international law.