This section is useful because the plaintiff must only prove that the rule or regulation in question had a discriminatory impact.

"We knew the discriminatory impact would be dramatic, and in fact, it was a lot worse than we imagined."

The ruling relieved employers of the burden of justifying, on grounds of "business necessity," those practices that are shown to have a discriminatory impact.

"We are challenging a range of state educational practices that, while racially neutral on their face, are having a discriminatory impact upon high minority schools."

It was this latter provision, the prohibition against voting practices that have a discriminatory impact, that provoked your heated opposition, Judge Roberts.

Justice DeGrasse agreed, saying that the state's system of financing schools is unconstitutional, does have a discriminatory impact and has to be revised.

Federal regulations barring actions that have a discriminatory impact, regardless of intent, could not provide a basis for private lawsuits, he said.

"There is an obligation on those who create the tests to determine if there is going to be any discriminatory impact," Ms. Fung said.

Programs develop more opportunities for staff to understand the discriminatory impact on clients that can result from public policies.

The question for the court was whether this discriminatory impact violated the Constitution's guarantee of equal protection.