Disparate impact

As Eric Holder leaves office one of the things he has used more than others is the doctrine of disparate impact. Normally when discrimination occurs there is a specific individual who has been adversely affected and the Justice Department steps in to challenge. With disparate impact there is no specific individual involved but there is statistical evidence that discrimination exist within a group. A typical example might be hiring practices in regards to gender. Suppose a police department shows no specific prejudice against females but total employment indicates that only a small percentage of women are hired. Often times the so called 80% rule used. Suppose a company hires 70% of the men who apply for a predominantly male job but only 30% of the women who apply. The ratio of 30/70 indicates that women were hired at 42% of the rate of men and since that is below 80% the government could bring a case against this employer. Holder used this process many times against police departments, schools and cities. I will not argue the logic of such methods but will point out that when you look at the rate that conservative groups were challenged by the Internal Revenue they definitely did not meet the 80% rule but no challenge was issued by Justice.