Appeals Court Catches the EEOC in hypocrisy

The US Equal Employment Commission had taken action against the Kaplan Higher Education Corporation and others. The EEOC charged that Kaplan was discriminating against blacks by looking the the credit history of job applicants.

The court's (US court of appeals for the 6th circuit) begins their opinion with the following:

"In this case the EEOC sued

the defendants for using the

same type of background check that the

EEOC itself uses. The EEOC’s personnel handbook recites that “[o]verdue just debts increase temptation to commit illegal or unethical acts as a

means of gaining funds to meet financial obligations.  Because of that concern, the EEOC runs credit checks on applicants for 84 of the agency’s 97 positions. The defendants (collectively,“Kaplan”) have the same concern; and thus Kaplan runs credit checks on applicants for positions that provide access to students’ financial-loan information, among other positions...."

 

However, the hypocrisy was not the determining fact in the decision in favor of Kaplan. Instead, the court found that the EEOC was unable to demonstrate a disparate impact. This was because Kaplan did not require racial information when people applied for positions at Kaplan.  Instead, the EEOC created an evaluation method where the drivers license pictures were evaluated by a team of 'racial identification experts" who opined on the race of the applicant.Here is what the court had to say about that,

"...The EEOC brought this case on the basis of a homemade methodology, crafted by a witness with no particular expertise to craft it, administered by persons with no particular expertise to administer it, tested by no one, and accepted only by the witness himself...."

 

So, even though there was hypocrisy, it was irrelevant to the decision.

The court's decision is here.

Plastic Bag Hypocrisy?

The NY Times had an editorial endorsing a bill to require retailers to charge $0.10 for each plastic bag they provide custormers.

There were several news articles on this bill, and although I am not sure, I think the charge does not require the NY Times to charge for the plastic bags they provide customers.

Of course it is possible, though unlikely, that NY Times editorial writers think the ill effects of plastic bags described by the NY Times (litter, clogged storm drains) do not come from newspaper bags. If they are that clueless, then they are not hypocrites.

The NY Times editorial is here.
A news report, from another publication is here.