Automobile Workers v. Johnson Controls - The Bfoq Considered

Title VII permitted an employer to discriminate on the basis of "religion, sex, or national origin" only when a genuine BFOQ existed that was "reasonably necessary to the normal operation of that particular business or enterprise." Johnson Controls argued that its safety concerns were "reasonably related" and that its fetal protection policy discriminated on the basis of a BFOQ of female sterility.

Blackmun conceded that BFOQ's had sometimes been upheld due to safety concerns. Citing a decision in which an airline's mandatory retirement policy had withstood an age discrimination charge, he explained that the safety concerns had "involved the possibility that, because of age-connected debility, a flight engineer might not properly assist the pilot, and might thereby cause a safety emergency." He stressed, however, a danger must be related to "third parties . . . indispensable to the particular business at issue" to establish a BFOQ. Johnson Controls' policies were not.