If you hire only veterans, disadvantaged (e.g. poor inner-city residents, < hs diploma), disabled, under-represented minorities, etc., and you intentionally and explicitly won't hire those who are more qualified, non-veteran / non-disabled individuals, then does the US law see this as a form of discrimination? Will a company be found liable in civil court for discriminating, or is this "anti-discrimination"?
The way employment law in the United States works is that you cannot discriminate against people who belong to a protected class. The Federal protected classes (copied from wikipedia) are:
Race – Civil Rights Act of 1964
Color – Civil Rights Act of 1964
Religion – Civil Rights Act of 1964
National origin – Civil Rights Act of 1964
Age (40 and over) – Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967
Sex – Equal Pay Act of 1963 and Civil Rights Act of 1964
Pregnancy – Pregnancy Discrimination Act
Citizenship – Immigration Reform and Control Act
Familial status – Civil Rights Act of 1968 Title VIII: Housing cannot discriminate for having children, with an exception for senior housing
Disability status – Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
Veteran status – Vietnam Era Veterans' Readjustment Assistance Act of 1974 and Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act
Genetic information – Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act
So, to answer your question. You could not hire only non-whites, since race is a protected class
in general. I'm guessing you could hire all disabled or all veterans, in that I suspect that class-protection there only extends to people who are veterans/disabled, though I'm not totally positive about that. You can absolutely discriminate against people based on education, as education status is not a protected class.
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