Fairness and Finality: Third-Party Challenges to Employment Discrimination Consent Decrees after the 1991 Civil Rights Act

In this Article, Professor Silver examines Section 108 of the Civil Rights Act of 1991, which limits challenges to employment practices taken pursuant to employment discrimination consent decrees. The Article traces the development of the impermissible collateral attack doctrine, that doctrine\u27s demise in Martin v. Wilks, and Congress\u27 response to Martin as embodied in Section 108. Professor Silver also suggests ways in which Section 108 should be administered to comply with the Due Process Clause and argues for specific additional federal legislation to protect non-litigants or potential third-party challengers as well as to foster the utility and finality of legitimate consent decrees. In addition to arguing for procedural reforms, Professor Silver urges the Supreme Court to acknowledge the relevance of race and to release benign racial distinctions from strict scrutiny analysis