Eleventh Circuit Provides Helpful Guidance on Distinguishing Racial Versus Cultural Characteristics in Context of Title VII Challenge to Grooming Policy.

The Southern District of Alabama dismissed the claim, stating that hairstyle is not an immutable characteristic protected by Title VII because it can be changed. The U.S. Constitution provides the basis for equality and defines immutable characteristics such as race and sex.

The U.S. Constitution provides the basis for equality and defines immutable characteristics such as race and sex.

Title VII’s prohibition of discrimination only extends to immutable characteristics.
No matter how closely a particular hairstyle might be associated with a particular race or ethnic group, hairstyles are fundamentally mutable (or changeable) characteristics.

personal characteristics that cannot reasonably be changed. Additionally, the court cited prior jurisprudence to support the proposition that Title VII protects discrimination based on immutable characteristics. [21] The court reasoned that Title VII protection extends to immutable characteristics but not cultural practices and that hairstyles are not immutable characteristics. amended complaint was futile, because “Title VII prohibits discrimination on the basis of immutable characteristics, such as race, color, or natural origin,” and “[a] hairstyle, even one more closely associated with a particular ethnic group, is a mutable characteristic.”
The Legal Landscape – Title VII’s Protected Classification of Immutable Characteristics . In upholding the opinion, the 11 th Circuit Court of Appeals in 2016 stated that “Title VII protects persons in covered categories with respect to their immutable characteristics, but not their cultural practices.” The court then extended that rationale to find that “Title VII protects person in covered categories with respect to their immutable characteristics, but not their cultural practices.” Id. Despite recognizing that the distinction between immutable and mutable characteristics can be a fine and difficult line to draw, the court held that nonetheless, courts have drawn this line. false. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits racial, religious, gender, ethnic, and color discrimination in employment. The court held that Title VII protection only extends to immutable traits of race, and that dreadlocks are not an immutable trait of black persons. The court said that mutable, or changeable, characteristics, such as hair style and facial hair, even if associated culturally with a protected class, are not protected characteristics. “We recognize that the distinction between immutable and mutable characteristics of race can sometimes be a fine (and difficult) one, but it is a line that courts have drawn.

The Article offers an original, comprehensive analysis of the meaning of the term “immutable characteristic.” It then explores whether the term accurately describes the attributes that are protected by the employment discrimination laws. The term “protected class” refers to groups of people who are legally protected from being harmed or harassed by laws, practices, and policies that discriminate against them due to a shared characteristic (e.g. Immutable characteristics refer to: This already-tenuous justification cannot explain the extension of the doctrine to embrace a distinction based on “innate” physiological differences. race, gender, age, disability, or sexual orientation).

In most instances the courts interpret the statute very broadly. Insights - Immutable Characteristics. characteristics, requires a renewed focus on the concept of immuta-ble characteristics. at *9. Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides protection for individuals based upon the following traits: sex, race, color, religion, and national origin. The unequal-burdens test is an atextual, normatively prob­lematic branch of Title VII doctrine, based on the shaky distinction between “mutable” and “immutable” characteristics.

Title VII of the federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employment discrimination based on specifically enumerated immutable classifications, such as sex, race, and national origin. Circuit Judge Adalberto Jordan wrote.

Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 provides protection for individuals based upon the following traits: sex, race, color, religion, and national origin.

10/23/2016 By … “Title VII protects persons in covered categories with respect to their immutable characteristics, but not their cultural practices,” U.S.

Title VII requires equal opportunity for people regardless of their race, color, national origin, gender or religion. This Article offers a revised analysis of Title VII race, color, and national origin disparate treatment cases involving mutable characteristics, like hair styles, clothing, and language. First, the Article submits that historically, definitions of race, color, and ethnicity have encompassed more than “immutable characteristics”. However, a line of cases holds that discrimination predicated on a forbidden criterion coupled with a ‘mutable’—easily altered—characteristic does not constitute a violation of Title VII. Title VII prohibits discrimination based on immutable characteristics such as race, color, sex and national origin.