I guess the question of whether discrimination on the basis of an "identifiable" or "protected" class is important legally. Practically, the differences among i

I guess the question of whether discrimination on the basis of an "identifiable" or "protected" class is important legally. Practically, the differences among individual members of a race or gender can be greater than the differences between any two races or genders in aggregate, so therefore discrimination on the basis of race or gender is irrelevant and self-defeating. On the other hand, I think it's possible that political views are an intrinsic part of one's personality, and thus are highly relevant. (In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., they are part of "the content of [their] character".) As an (admittedly exaggerated) example, I feel that the conservative worldview is associated with lack of empathy ("Those poors could be wealthy if only they weren't so lazy."), lack of optimism ("The world is going to hell in a handbasket, so we must return to the mythical past when men were men and women knew their place."), and lack of trust ("We need to build a wall to keep the bad people out."). I feel blessed to be a member of a team of developers with high empathy, optimism and trust, and I'm sure Googlers also value those traits in their developers. While I would never intentionally make politics part of a hiring decision, I have no doubt that the personality traits I select for naturally discriminate against strongly conservative candidates.