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Opinion of the Court
implies that the decisionmaker . . . selected or reaffirmed a particular course of action at least in part 'because of,' not merely 'in spite of,' its adverse effects upon an identifiable group." Id., at 279 (citation omitted).3 The same principle applies to the "class-based, invidiously discriminatory animus" requirement of § 1985(3).4 Moreover, two of our cases
3 Justice Stevens asserts that, irrespective of intent or motivation, a classification is sex based if it has a sexually discriminatory effect. Post, at 326-332. The cases he puts forward to confirm this revisionist reading of Geduldig v. Aiello, 417 U. S. 484 (1974), in fact confirm the opposite. Nashville Gas Co. v. Satty, 434 U. S. 136 (1977), cited Geduldig only once, in endorsement of Geduldig's ruling that a facially neutral benefit plan is not sex based unless it is shown that " 'distinctions involving pregnancy are mere pretexts designed to effect an invidious discrimination against the members of one sex or the other.' " 434 U. S., at 145 (quoting Geduldig, supra, at 496-497, n. 20) (internal quotation marks omitted). Satty said that the Court "need not decide" whether "it is necessary to prove intent to establish a prima facie violation of § 703(a)(1)," 434 U. S., at 144, because "[r]espondent failed to prove even a discriminatory effect," id., at 145 (emphasis added). It is clear from this that sex-based discriminatory intent is something beyond sexually discriminatory effect. The Court found liability in Satty "[n]otwithstanding Geduldig," post, at 328, not (as Justice Stevens suggests) because Geduldig is compatible with the belief that effects alone constitute the requisite intent, but rather because § 703(a)(2) of Title VII has no intent requirement, 434 U. S., at 139-141. In his discussion of the (inapplicable) Pregnancy Discrimination Act, 92 Stat. 2076, Justice Stevens acknowledges that Congress understood Geduldig as we do, see post, at 330-331, and nn. 29-30. As for the cases Justice Stevens relegates to footnotes: Turner v. Utah Dept. of Employment Security, 423 U. S. 44 (1975), was not even a discrimination case; General Electric Co. v. Gilbert, 429 U. S. 125, 135 (1976), describes the holding of Geduldig precisely as we do; and Newport News Shipbuilding & Dry Dock Co. v. EEOC, 462 U. S. 669 (1983), casts no doubt on the continuing vitality of Geduldig.
4 We think this principle applicable to § 1985(3) not because we believe that Equal Protection Clause jurisprudence is automatically incorporated into § 1985(3), but rather because it is inherent in the requirement of a class-based animus, i. e., an animus based on class. We do not dispute Justice Stevens' observation, post, at 326, that Congress "may offer relief from discriminatory effects," without evidence of intent. The question is
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