Washington v. Davis

Washington v. Davis
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 1, 1976 Decided June 7, 1976
Full case name	Washington, Mayor of Washington, D.C., et al. v. Davis, et al.
Citations	426 U.S. 229 (more) 96 S. Ct. 2040; 48 L. Ed. 2d 597; 1976 U.S. LEXIS 154; 12 Fair Empl. Prac. Cas. (BNA) 1415; 11 Empl. Prac. Dec. (CCH) ¶ 10,958
Case history
Prior	Certiorari to the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit
Subsequent	168 U.S. App. D.C. 42, 512 F.2d 956, reversed.
Holding
To be unconstitutional, racial discrimination by the government must contain two elements: a discriminatory purpose and a discriminatory impact.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinions
Majority	White, joined by Burger, Blackmun, Powell, Rehnquist, Stevens; Stewart (Parts I and II)
Concurrence	Stevens
Dissent	Brennan, joined by Marshall
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. V Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964

Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229 (1976), was a United States Supreme Court case that established that laws that have a racially discriminatory effect but were not adopted to advance a racially discriminatory purpose are valid under the U.S. Constitution.^[1]