The Law and Equal Employment Opportunity: What's Past Should Not Be Prologue

This article explores the debate over the role of law in ensuring equal employment opportunity. The author describes the constant change in judicial and administrative regulation on this subject that has resulted, he believes, from the absence of consensus on whether the goal of public policy should be to promote equal treatment or equal achievement in the workplace. He argues that the overlapping and conflicting regulations, inconsistent results, and general confusion produced by the past encounters between the law and discriminatory employment practices should not be the model for future development of policy.