Civil Rights to Tort Law

ABSTRACT

It is not always appreciated that proven discrimination on the basis of race or sex may not amount to a tort and that even persistenracial or sexual harassment may not be enough to qualify for tort recovery. This Article explores the question of whether discriminatory and harassing conduct in the workplace is or should be considered outrageous conduct, actionable under the tort of intentional infliction of emotional distress. In recent years, courts have taken radically different approaches to the issue, from holding that such claims are preempted to treating the infliction tort as a reinforcement of civil rights principles. The dominant approach views tort claims as mere "gap fillers" that should come into playonly in rare cases that do not fit comfortably under other recognized theories of redress. To place the current approaches in perspective and determine the proper location for harassment claims...