See, it comes down to the fact that individuals have rights, the government does not. The governments responsiblity is to protect rights. One individual does not have the right to force another to let them be employed by them(which is the same as having a right to that individual's money and property).
When "employed" by the State(government), and each person has the equal right to seek such a position, discrimination based upon race, sex, religion or handicap is an infringement upon individual rights. An individual has the right to seek "life, liberty and happiness", which is limited by every indiduals equal right to do so also. That gives an individual EVERY right to determine who they employee and how much they pay them. Governments(the State) is not an individual. It is composed of individuals. There is a strict devider between "public" and "private". Public only applies to matters directly and only funded by the public(taxes).
That ...my friend is my point. We have rights given by God. These are NOT rights given by God when only dealing with the government. Example ... I have the right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure ... not just from the government but from my employer or ANYONE else too. If one refuses a drug test or a credit report or a driver record exam at a company, that word gets around to the other companies and that person will not work in that industry. This requesting of "unrelated to the position" information is becoming more and more prevalent in the electronics industry. This is from my sister-in-law who is a VP of HR at a major semiconductor company. So you do NOT really have the right to work elsewhere. Granted a person with a twenty year electronics engineering career might be able to get a job at Micky Dee's but I hear they are drug testing too. So ... where does it stop ... geneologies, voting records ...