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Since 1973, all federal courts have used the three-stage analysis established
in McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green to decide a vast majority of intentional employment discrimination cases. During the 1990s, an increasing number of commentators criticized the McDonnell Douglas test, particularly the first stage, the so-called prima facie case.
At the dawn of a new decade, in 2000, the Supreme Court reconsidered the McDonnell Douglas test for the first time in years in Reeves v. Sanderson Plumbing Products, Inc. How did the Court
treat the prima facie case, given the strong criticisms that had been leveled against it for several years? The Reeves Court made the prima facie case more important than ever.

Read the Comment by Michael Stephen Hayes Here