Mc Donnell Douglas Corp. V. Green - Impact of The Case

Impact of The Case

The third point of the Court's decision is the reason for the significance of this case. The McDonnell Douglas case established the order and framework that employment discrimination cases must follow:

1. The plaintiff (employee) must first establish a prima facie case of discrimination.

2. The defendant (employer) must produce evidence of a legitimate non-discriminatory reason for its actions. If this occurs, then the presumption of discrimination dissipates.

3. The plaintiff must then present facts to show an inference of discrimination. The plaintiff may do so either by showing that the defendant’s explanation is insufficient and only a pretext for discrimination or by otherwise proving that the defendant's actions used one of the listed unlawful discriminatory parameters.

In practice, the third step is the most difficult step for plaintiffs to achieve successfully.

The significance of this case is that it allows the plaintiff (employee) to shift the questions to be proved from whether the defendant has acted “because of” an unlawful discriminatory factor to whether the defendant has lied about the reasons it took action.

Since its issuance in 1973, all the federal courts have subsequently adopted the order and allocation of proof set out in McDonnell Douglas for all claims of disparate-treatment employment discrimination that are not based on direct evidence of discriminatory intent.

As for the impact of the case on the original plaintiff and defendant, the case was remanded (sent back) to the District Court to adjudicate the case in compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling.