Are Credit Checks Job-Related and Consistent With Business Necessity?
Once the plaintiff “demonstrates that a respondent uses a particular employment practice that causes a disparate impact on the basis of race,” it is the defendant’s burden of proof to “demonstrate that the challenged practice is job related for the position in question and consistent with business necessity.”16 This standard was codified into Title VII but originated from Griggs v. Duke Power Co., which rejected two job requirements because “neither . . . is shown to bear a demonstrable relationship to successful performance of the jobs for which it was used. Both were adopted . . . without meaningful study of their relationship to job-performance ability.”17 The Court later fleshed out this requirement in Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody: “Job relatedness cannot be proved through vague and unsubstantiated hearsay,” but instead must be shown by a study “validating” the use of the job requirement as a criterion for the specific job in question.18 In Albemarle, the employer’s study purported
