Burns v. Thiokol Chemical Corporation
United States Court of Appeals for Fifth Circuit
483 F.2d 300 (1973)
Claxton Burns (plaintiff), fired after 14 years at Thiokol Chemical Corporation (Thiokol) (defendant), sued for racial discrimination under Title VII and sought interrogatory responses covering detailed demographic and employment data on white employees since 1960, hiring records for vacancies since the 1960s, and job descriptions for various positions. Thiokol objected that the requests were irrelevant and unduly burdensome, and the district court sustained the objection entirely, later ruling for Thiokol on the merits that Burns wasn't fired because of race. Burns appealed.
Whether, in a Title VII action, empirical statistical data about the defendant's employees and employment practices is relevant and discoverable information.