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Article: Discrimination
- Article from:
- West's Encyclopedia of American Law
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DISCRIMINATION
In
constitutional law,
the grant by statute of particular privileges to a class arbitrarily designated from a sizable number of persons, where no reasonable distinction exists between the favored and disfavored classes. Federal laws, supplemented by court decisions, prohibit discrimination in such areas as employment, housing
, voting rights,
education, and access to public facilities. They also proscribe discrimination on the basis of race, age, sex, nationality, disability, or religion. In addition, state and local laws can prohibit discrimination in these areas and in others not covered by federal laws.
In the 1960s, in response to the civil rights movement and an ...