* Marital status is a protected class. You can't consider it when hiring. * Age is a protected class. You can't consider it when hiring. * Pregnancy is a proxy for sex, a protected class. You can't consider it when hiring [1]. * Parental status is a protected class, but apparently is not applicable to Employment cases [2]. So you could get away with avoiding parents in some places. But man, what a great way to violate the No Asshole rule. Frankly, I'd rather not work for a startup that would want to go down this path.
[1] http://users.aristotle.net/~hantley/hiedlegl/statutes/title7... [2] http://www.seattle.gov/civilrights/discrimination.htm
That sounds awfully ridiculous.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Employment_discrimination_law_i...
On the other hand, state and local laws may add additional restrictions beyond federal laws and as I've mentioned... I am not a lawyer. And I don't condone people being dicks.
EDIT: In California, the "magic number" of employees below which you can be an open bigot is apparently five. See:
http://ag.ca.gov/publications/civilrights/01CRhandbook/chapt...