Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/478/385/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 20:30:01+00:00

Document:
The private petitioners -- who include employees of the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service (Extension Service), recipients of its services, members of its Homemaker Clubs, and parents of youths that belong to its 4-H Clubs -- filed suit against various state and local officials in Federal District Court (the United States intervened as a plaintiff), alleging racial discrimination in employment and in provision of services by the Extension Service, in violation of the Constitution and various federal statutes, including Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The court refused to certify various proposed classes and entered judgment for respondents, finding that petitioners had not carried their burden of demonstrating that respondents had engaged in a pattern or practice of racial discrimination. The Court of Appeals affirmed.
1. For the reasons stated in the concurring opinion of JUSTICE BRENNAN, the Court of Appeals erred: in holding that, under Title VII, the Extension Service had no duty to eradicate salary disparities between white and black workers that had their origin prior to the date Title VII was made applicable to public employees; in disregarding petitioners' statistical analysis because it reflected pre-Title VII salary disparities; in holding that petitioners' regressions were unacceptable as evidence of discrimination; in ignoring evidence related to salary disparities presented by petitioners in addition to their multiple regression analyses; and in refusing to certify a class of black employees of the Extension Service, although the Court of Appeals was correct in refusing to certify a class of defendant counties.
2. For the reasons stated in the opinion of JUSTICE WHITE, neither the Constitution nor the applicable Department of Agriculture regulations required more than what the District Court and the Court of Appeals found the Extension Service has done to disestablish segregation in its 4-H and Homemaker Clubs.
751 F.2d 662, affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded.
* Together with No. 85-428, United States et al. v. Friday et al., also on certiorari to the same court.
"unification and integration of the Extension Service did not result immediately in the elimination of some disparities which had existed between the salaries of white personnel and black personnel. . . ."
App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 85-93, p. 31a. See also id. at 122a-123a; 201a. If, on remand, it is finally determined that pre-1965 salary disparities did continue past the date of the merger to a time for which recovery is not barred by the applicable statute of limitations, the courts below will have to decide private petitioners' constitutional claim.
"in the memorandum of understanding between the Extension Service and the boards of county commissioners, all appointments are worked out jointly between the Extension Service and the commissioners, and no official action can be taken unilaterally by either party with respect to filling a vacancy."
App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 85-93, p. 77a. This finding is supported by the record, App. 163.
Respondents do not contend that the Extension Service would not be liable for any pattern or practice of discrimination with respect to the hiring of County Extension Chairmen. Thus, it was error for the Court of Appeals to consider solely the recommendations made by the Extension Service, rather than the final hiring decisions in which the Extension Service and county acted together.
JUSTICE BRENNAN, joined by all other Members of the Court, concurring in part.
relating to agriculture and home economics." App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 85-93, p. 7a (hereinafter Pet. App.). The Extension Service is a division of the School of Agriculture and Life Sciences at North Carolina State University (NCSU). It is headed by a Director who exercises authority over District Extension Chairmen responsible for administering all Extension Service programs within the State's six Extension Service districts. The District Extension Chairmen, in turn, supervise the 100 County Extension Chairmen who are responsible for developing and coordinating all Extension Service activities within their respective counties. The County Extension Chairmen also report to their respective Board of County Commissioners (Board), a unit of local government, on extension programs and on matters relating to budgeting and personnel.
The Extension Service operates in four major areas: home economics, agriculture, 4-H and youth, and community resource development. In both the home economics and 4-H areas, one of the Extension Service's methods entails the establishment of clubs to educate the club members in home economics and other useful and practical skills. The agricultural program educates and encourages farmers to adopt scientific methods and to adjust to changing economic circumstances. The community resource development program emphasizes group action through citizen groups and organizations. Each of these programs is implemented by local agents who are selected for employment jointly by the Extension Service and the county Boards. Agents are divided into three ranks: full agent, associate agent, and assistant agent.
"While the three ranks of agents perform essentially the same types of tasks, when an agent is promoted, his responsibilities increase and a higher level of performance is expected of him."
The salaries of all workers are determined jointly by the Extension Service and the Boards. Id. at 33a; CA App.
223; DX 78, CA App. 1684. [Footnote 2/1] The federal, state, and county governments all contribute to these salaries. The Boards and the Extension Service determine jointly the proportionate share of salaries to be paid by the State and by the county. Moreover, all county extension hirings and firings are decided "jointly between the North Carolina Agricultural Extension Service and the Board of County Commissioners.'" Pet. App. 24a (quoting Memorandum of Understanding, DX 78).
Extension Service into a single organization. However, as the District Court subsequently found, "[the] unification and integration of the Extension Service did not result immediately in the elimination of some disparities which had existed between the salaries of white personnel and black personnel. . . ." Id. at 31a.
On April 7, 1972, the United States intervened under § 902 of Title IX and §§ 601 and 602 of Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000h-2, 2000d, and 2000d-1. The United States subsequently amended its complaint in intervention to include allegations that defendants had also violated §§ 703 and 706 of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, as amended, 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e-2 and 2000e-5. The United States' complaint essentially tracked the claims made by the private petitioners. The private petitioners were permitted on the eve of trial to amend their complaint to add a claim under Title VII as well.
On two occasions prior to trial the District Court was asked, but declined, to certify the action as a class action.
The first issue we must decide is whether the Court of Appeals erred in upholding the District Court's finding that petitioners had not proved by a preponderance of the evidence that respondents had discriminated against black Extension Service employees in violation of Title VII by paying them less than whites employed in the same positions. The Court of Appeals reasoned that the Extension Service was under no obligation to eliminate any salary disparity between blacks and whites that had its origin prior to 1972, when Title VII became applicable to public employers such as the Extension Service. [Footnote 2/5] It also reasoned that factors other than those included in petitioners' multiple regression analyses affected salary, and that therefore those regression analyses were incapable of sustaining a finding in favor of petitioners.
on account of pre-Act discrimination, it has not made all the adjustments necessary to get rid of all such disparity."
Id. at 672. See also Brief for Respondents 32 ("[E]fforts were made to reduce the average differences, but, due to the county-by-county salary differences and finding [sic] structure, 1971 [sic], the averages were not eliminated"). The court interpreted petitioners' claim on appeal to be that "the pre-Act discriminatory difference in salaries should have been affirmatively eliminated, but has not." 751 F.2d at 670. Relying on our cases in Hazelwood School District v. United States, 433 U. S. 299 (1977), and United Air Lines, Inc. v. Evans, 431 U. S. 553 (1977), it concluded, "[w]e do not think this is the law." 751 F.2d at 670.
The error of the Court of Appeals with respect to salary disparities created prior to 1972 and perpetuated thereafter is too obvious to warrant extended discussion: that the Extension Service discriminated with respect to salaries prior to the time it was covered by Title VII does not excuse perpetuating that discrimination after the Extension Service became covered by Title VTI. To hold otherwise would have the effect of exempting from liability those employers who were historically the greatest offenders of the rights of blacks. A pattern or practice that would have constituted a violation of Title VII, but for the fact that the statute had not yet become effective, became a violation upon Title VII's effective date, and, to the extent an employer continued to engage in that act or practice, it is liable under that statute. While recovery may not be permitted for pre-1972 acts of discrimination, to the extent that this discrimination was perpetuated after 1972, liability may be imposed.
The Court of Appeals' conclusion that pre-Act salary discrimination did not have to be eliminated undermines the rest of its analysis of the District Court opinion. Having rejected the effect of pre-Act discrimination, the court considered solely whether the Extension Service discriminated with respect to the application of quartile rankings which, according to the Court of Appeals, were "the only aspect of salary computation in which the Extension Service exercised any discretion." 751 F.2d at 674. [Footnote 2/7] Because, as we have explained, the Extension Service was under an obligation to eradicate salary disparities based on race that began prior to the effective date of Title VII, [Footnote 2/8] the Court of Appeals erred in concentrating its analysis solely on the issue whether there was racial discrimination in the ranking system.
"establish by a preponderance of the evidence that racial discrimination was the company's standard operating procedure -- the regular, rather than the unusual, practice."
Teamsters v. United States, 431 U. S. 324, 431 U. S. 336 (1977). Further, our decision in United States Postal Service Board of Governors v. Aikens, 460 U. S. 711 (1983), although not decided in the context of a pattern-and-practice case, makes clear that, if the defendants have not succeeded in having a case dismissed on the ground that plaintiffs have failed to establish a prima facie case, and have responded to the plaintiffs' proof by offering evidence of their own, the factfinder then must decide whether the plaintiffs have demonstrated a pattern or practice of discrimination by a preponderance of the evidence. This is because the only issue to be decided at that point is whether the plaintiffs have actually proved discrimination. Id. at 460 U. S. 715. This determination is subject to the clearly erroneous standard on appellate review. See Anderson v. Bessemer City, 470 U. S. 564 (1985); Pullman-Standard v. Swint, 456 U. S. 273 (1982).
and tenure to check for disparities between the salaries of blacks and whites. GX 214; Tr. 3915-3918; CA App. 1681; Tr. 3920.
The regressions purported to demonstrate that, in 1974, the average black employee earned $331 less per year than a white employee with the same job title, education, and tenure, GX 123; CA App. 1601; Tr. 364-365, and that, in 1975, the disparity was $395, GX 123; CA App. 1589; Tr. 377. [Footnote 2/9] The regression for 1981 showed a smaller disparity which lacked statistical significance.
"[The] district court refused to accept plaintiffs' expert testimony as proof of discrimination by a preponderance of the evidence because the plaintiffs' expert had not included a number of variable factors the court considered relevant, among them being the across-the-board and percentage pay increases which varied from county to county. The district court was, of course, correct in this analysis."
considered unacceptable as evidence of discrimination."
Ibid. The Court of Appeals' treatment of the statistical evidence in this case was erroneous in important respects.
than not that impermissible discrimination exists, the plaintiff is entitled to prevail.
"[p]roof that an employer engaged in racial discrimination prior to the effective date of Title VII might in some circumstances support the inference that such discrimination continued, particularly where relevant aspects of the decisionmaking process had undergone little change. [Footnote 2/13]"
Further, petitioners presented evidence to rebut respondents' contention that county-to-county variations in contributions to salary explain the established disparity between black and white salaries. The United States presented evidence, which it claims respondents did not rebut, establishing that black employees were not located disproportionately in the counties that contributed only a small amount to Extension Service salaries. GX 216; see also CA App. 189. Absent a disproportionate concentration of blacks in such counties, it is difficult, if not impossible, to understand how the fact that some counties contribute less to salaries than others could explain disparities between black and white salaries.
In addition, the United States presented an exhibit based on 1973 data for 23 counties showing 29 black employees who were earning less than whites in the same county who had comparable or lower positions and tenure. GX 102.
Finally, and there was some overlap here with evidence used to discredit the county-to-county variation theory, petitioners presented evidence consisting of individual comparisons between salaries of blacks and whites similarly situated. GX 102, DX 48. Witness testimony, claimed by petitioners to be unrebutted, also confirmed the continued existence of such disparities. CA App.190; Tr. 2010-2012, 2685, 2825-2826.
Clubs on or after November 18, 1971; [Footnote 2/16] and, as a defendant ,(3) all County Commissioners in North Carolina who held that position on or after November 18, 1971. 751 F.2d at 667. The Court of Appeals upheld the District Court's denial of class certification.
With respect to the class of black employees, the Court of Appeals held that, due to the fact that salaries are made up of money from several distinct sources, the Federal Government, the State, and the counties, the "claim of a potential plaintiff against one county will not be typical of the claim of another potential plaintiff against a different county." Id. at 668 [Footnote 2/17] It applied the same reasoning to the employees' charge of discrimination in the hiring of County Chairmen. Ibid. Yet the claims here were not asserted solely against the counties; they were asserted also against the Extension Service. And, as against the Extension Service, at least, it is clear that the claims of the named plaintiffs were "typical"
"was simply no evidence of any standardized practice among the one hundred separate counties in the state to deprive anyone of any rights solely because of race."
"to have a proper class of defendants in a case such as this, there must be either a statewide rule or practice so that relief is available if the rule or practice is invalid, or the adjudication with respect to a member of a defendant class must, as a practical matter, be dispositive of the interests of the other members of the class as provided in FRCP 23(b)(1)(B)."
particular county could not "be dispositive of the interests of the other members of the class." The private petitioners have suggested no theory to support any different result.
In this opinion and in my opinion dissenting in part, post p. 309, the following designations are used to refer to the record. GX, exhibit of Federal Government; DX defendant's exhibit; Tr, trial transcript; CA App. Appendix in the Court of Appeals.
"(1) All black and Indian employees and potential employees of the [Extension Service] since November 18, 1971 and thereafter;"
"(2) All black and Indian persons who were recipients or potential recipients of service from the [Extension Service] on November 18, 1971, and thereafter;"
"(3) All black and Indian members or potential members of the [Extension Service's] 4-H Clubs on November 18, 1971, and thereafter;"
"(4) All black and Indian persons who were members or potential members of the [Extension Service's] Homemaker Clubs on November 18, 1971, and thereafter, and"
"(5) A defendant class consisting of all County Commissioners in North Carolina, in their official capacities, on November 18, 1971, and thereafter."
The claims relating to American Indians were dismissed by the District Court because petitioners at trial presented no evidence to support these claims. Id. at 49a, ¦ 11. No issue with respect to these claims is before us.
Petitioners sought to prove that respondents had continued to assign black employees only to counties that had black employees prior to 1965; had failed to recruit, hire and assign blacks on an equal basis with whites; had denied blacks the same compensation, terms, conditions, and privileges as were provided to whites; had segregated blacks in work assignments; had failed to establish selection standards sufficiently objective to prevent discrimination in hiring and promotion; had failed to correct the present effects of past discrimination; had failed to provide minorities with services equal to the services provided white persons; and had failed to maintain nonracially segregated 4-H Clubs and Extension Homemaker Clubs. Id. at 50a-51a.
The question presented in the Federal Government's petition is whether black state employees establish a claim under § 703(a) of the 1964 Civil Rights Act, 42 U.S.C. 2000e-2(a), by identifying current salary disparities between themselves and white employees holding the same jobs when such disparities result from a state policy before 1965 of paying blacks lower salaries than whites.
As originally enacted, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 applied only to private employers. The Act was expanded to include public employees by the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, 86 Stat. 103, whose effective date was March 24, 1972. See 42 U.S.C. §§ 2000e(a), (b), (f), (h).
Neither Hazelwood nor Evans suggests any different rule, and indeed those cases support the result here. In Evans, respondent, a female flight attendant, was forced to resign in 1968 from her position due to her employer's policy forbidding female flight attendants to marry. Respondent there never brought an action with respect to this forced resignation. In 1972, she was rehired by the airline as a new hire, and given seniority only from that date. Although her claim with respect to the 1968 resignation was time-barred, respondent filed suit claiming that the airline was guilty of a present, continuing violation of Title VII because the seniority system treated her less favorably than males who were hired after her termination in 1968 and prior to her reemployment. Further, she claimed that the seniority system gave present effect to the past, illegal forced retirement, and thereby perpetuated the consequences of forbidden discrimination. Respondent had made no allegation that the seniority system itself was intentionally designed to discriminate. Because a lawsuit on the forced resignation was time-barred, however, it was to be treated as an act occurring before the statute was passed, and therefore it had "no present legal consequences," 431 U.S. at 431 U. S. 558, even though "[i]t may constitute relevant background evidence in a proceeding in which the status of a current practice is at issue." Ibid. The "critical question," the Court declared, "is whether any present violation exists." Ibid. (emphasis added). Because the employer was not engaged in discriminatory practices at the time the respondent in Evans brought suit, there simply was no violation of Title VII.
"[a] public employer who from  forward made all its employment decisions in a wholly nondiscriminatory way would not violate Title VII even if it had formerly maintained an all-white workforce by purposefully excluding Negroes."
Here, however, petitioners are alleging that, in continuing to pay blacks less than similarly situated whites, respondents have not from the date of the Act forward "made all [their] employment decisions in a wholly nondiscriminatory way." Ibid. Our holding in no sense gives legal effect to the pre-1972 actions, but, consistent with Evans and Hazelwood, focuses on the present salary structure, which is illegal if it is a mere continuation of the pre-1965 discriminatory pay structure.
"Believe you'd agree our salaries for women & non-white men on average are lower -- Our figures verify -- Due to several factors --"
"-- The competitive market -- This is not acceptable as a reason though."
"-- Tradition -- not just in Ext."
"-- Less county support for non-white positions."
On appeal, petitioners specifically complained that the District Court had not given any weight to the pre-Act discrimination in its analysis. However, to the extent that proof is required to establish discrimination with respect to salary disparities created after 1972, see supra, at 478 U. S. 394-397, evidence of pre-Act discrimination is quite probative.
There was very little evidence to show that there was, in fact, no disparity in salaries between blacks and whites, or to demonstrate that any disparities that existed were the product of chance. The District Court did point to cases of individual differences that it found to be successfully rebutted by respondents. In addition, the District Court alluded to evidence presented by defendants relating to salaries for 1976 and thereafter, Pet. App. 146a-147a, CA App. 2227-2231, but, putting aside whether that evidence actually contradicted petitioners', it is simply not very probative of whether there existed a pattern or practice of discrimination prior to 1976. The District Court also pointed to "scattergrams" or graphs based on the data in respondents' regressions, concluding that these graphs displayed the salaries of blacks and whites "in a completely random distribution." Pet. App. 148a. Yet, as pointed out by the United States in its brief below, the very purpose of a regression analysis is to organize and explain data that may appear to be random. See Fisher, Multiple Regression in Legal Proceedings, 80 Colum.L.Rev. 702, 705-707 (1980). Thus, it is simply wrong to give weight to a scattergram while ignoring the underlying regression analysis. Respondents' strategy at trial was to declare simply that many factors go into making up an individual employee's salary; they made no attempt that we are aware of -- statistical or otherwise -- to demonstrate that, when these factors were properly organized and accounted for there was no significant disparity between the salaries of blacks and whites.
We do note, however, that certain conclusions of the District Court are inexplicable in light of the record. First, the District Court, in referring to petitioners' expert's analyses, stated that the regressions on which petitioners principally relied did not include job title. Pet. App. 119a. Yet the District Court expressly noted that, in other regressions in which petitioners did include job title, a statistically significant disparity was noted. Second, the District Court stated that "the single most important factor in determining salaries for the Extension Service professional staff is job performance." Id. at 134a. Yet the District Court failed even to note that respondents' regression analysis for 1975, which included a performance variable, showed an even greater disparity in salary than did petitioners'.
Third, the District Court complained about the inclusion of the County Chairmen in petitioners' regression analysis, fearing that the fact that they were disproportionately white would skew the salary statistics to show whites earning more than blacks. Yet, because the regressions controlled for job title, adding County Chairmen as a variable in the regression would simply mean that the salaries of white County Chairmen would be compared with those of nonwhite County Chairmen. In any event, respondents' own regression at trial excluded County Chairmen, and revealed a differential between black and white salaries.
Finally, the District Court listed nine variables that it believed were not accounted for in petitioners' regressions. See id. at 133a. It did not, however, determine whether these variables were included in the evidence in other respects. For example, several of the "missing" variables relate to county-to-county variations, while others relate to performance, a variable expressly included in respondents' own regression.
"in which we held that promotion and pay decisions subject to almost complete local autonomy in the various offices of Southern Bell throughout North Carolina would not support the typicality requirement under FRCP 23(a)(3) for a statewide class of employees."
751 F.2d at 668. The findings of the District Court flatly contradict the Court of Appeals conclusion that salaries are reached in any "autonomous" fashion, or are arrived at by the counties; rather, the District Court explained that "[t]he salaries are determined jointly by the Service and the county board of commissioners." App. 77. This finding is supported by the Memorandum of Understanding between the Extension Service and the Boards of Commissioners for the relevant time period. See id. at 162. Of course, that this case may be one in which it is proper to certify a class is distinct from the question whether county variations serve as a basis for the demonstrated disparities between the salaries of black and white employees.
"it is now settled law that class action certification is inappropriate and unnecessary in pattern and practice suits brought by the EEOC and the government pursuant to Title VII."
Pet. App. 44a-46a. It cited our opinion in General Telephone Co. v. EEOC, 446 U. S. 318 (1980), for this proposition. The District Court misread that opinion. In General Telephone Co., we held that, in a pattern-and-practice case, the Government need not be certified as a representative of the class of alleged victims. That case does not stand for the erroneous proposition that, once the Government intervenes in a case brought by private plaintiffs, those plaintiffs lose their right to proceed as a class.
"the Extension Service has had a policy that all voluntary clubs be organized without regard to race, and that each club certify that its membership is open to all persons regardless of race; that it instructs its agents to encourage the formation of new clubs without regard to race; that it publishes its policies in the media; that all of its club work and functions above the local community level are being conducted on a fully integrated basis; that its 4-H camps are fully integrated, and have been for over ten years; and that no person has been denied membership in any club on account of race."
not disturb any of the findings of the District Court, and affirmed its judgment with respect to the Clubs.
In view of the District Court's findings, this case presents no current violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, since the Service has discontinued its prior discriminatory practices and has adopted a wholly neutral admissions policy. The mere continued existence of single-race clubs does not make out a constitutional violation. As the District Court found, one's choice of a Club is entirely voluntary. Green v. School Board of New Kent County, 391 U. S. 430 (1968), held that voluntary choice programs in the public schools were inadequate, and that the schools must take affirmative action to integrate their student bodies. It was the effective predicate for imposing busing and pupil assignment programs to end dual school systems, but it has no application to the voluntary associations supported by the Extension Service. Even if the Service in effect assigned blacks and whites to separate clubs prior to 1965, it did not do so after that time. While schoolchildren must go to school, there is no compulsion to join 4-H or Homemaker Clubs, and, while school boards customarily have the power to create school attendance areas and otherwise designate the school that particular students may attend, there is no statutory or regulatory authority to deny a young person the right to join any Club he or she wishes to join. Nor does the Constitution require more than what the District Court and the Court of Appeals found the Service has done in this case to disestablish segregation in its Clubs. Our cases requiring parks and the like to be desegregated lend no support for requiring more than what has been done in this case. And however sound Green may have been in the context of the public schools, it has no application to this wholly different milieu. We agree with the submission of the United States in this respect.
Petitioners rely on the Department of Agriculture regulation requiring the Service to take "affirmative action" to overcome the effects of prior discrimination in its programs.
But the Service has taken affirmative action to change its policy and to establish what is concededly a nondiscriminatory admissions system, and it is the position of the United States and the federal parties that there has been full compliance with the regulation. In view of the deference due the Department's interpretation of its own regulation, we cannot accept petitioner's submission that the regulation has been violated.
"Constitution . . . require[s no] more than what the District Court and the Court of Appeals found the Extension Service has done in this case to disestablish segregation in its 4-H and Extension Homemaker Clubs,"
this departure from the Court's historic commitment to the eradication of segregation in this country. I dissent.
The 4-H and Youth Program in North Carolina is one of the major educational programs of the Extension Service. The Extension Service also operates an extension home economics program in each of the 100 counties of North Carolina, a program which also renders important assistance to the citizens of the State. Through these programs, the Extension Service organizes and services 4-H and Extension Homemaker Clubs throughout the State. At trial, the Director of the Extension Service, Thomas Blalock, testified that 4-H agents recruit, train, and utilize volunteers to establish 4-H Clubs and Extension Homemaker Clubs, and that extension agents provide educational materials and training to the 4-H Clubs. Tr. 4196, 4199, 4217. Similarly, agents regularly meet with the Extension Homemaker Clubs, give lessons to them, and train individual club members to give home economics lessons to their members. App. to Pet. for Cert. in No. 85-93, p 16a (hereinafter Pet. App.). See also Tr. of Oral Arg. 42. Federal law restricts the use of the name "4-H Club" to clubs affiliated with state extension services and certain other organizations. 7 CFR §§ 8.1-8.10 (1985).
"[4-H] clubs were organized in the public schools, and county 4-H agents would meet with the clubs during school hours and present educational programs to them. Thereafter, the clubs were moved out of the schools and were organized on a community basis, with adult volunteers serving as leaders of the clubs."
racially mixed communities, there were 580 all-white clubs, 296 all-black clubs, and 4 clubs of American Indians, for a total of 880 single-race clubs, ibid.; this, as compared to 892 in 1972, represented a decline of only 1.3% in the number of single-race clubs in eight years, GX 33, CA App. 1807. [Footnote 3/1] With respect to Extension Homemaker Clubs, in 1972 -- the last year for which the Extension Service kept statistics -- 98.8% of all the Extension Homemaker Clubs were either all-white or all-black. App. 103.
United States in Civ. Action No. 2879 (EDNC), pp. 3, 19-20. The private petitioners based their claim on both the Constitution and Title VI. Complaint 23.
"or that he or she had been denied membership in any such club on the basis of race; or that he or she had ever been subjected to discrimination with respect to any services offered by the Extension Service."
"[a]bsent proof of alleged racial discrimination, the mere existence of all-white and all-black 4-H and Extension Homemaker Clubs in some racially mixed communities violates neither Title VI nor the equal protection clause."
751 F.2d 662, 687, n. 128 (CA4 1984). The court noted that the record was devoid of proof of discrimination with respect to services provided by the clubs, and that there was insufficient proof of discrimination with respect to membership in any club. Ibid.
relieve the Extension Service of its affirmative constitutional duty to dismantle the discriminatory system that it had created.
in "affirmative action to ensure that [their] program is open to all on an equal basis, and that it avoids subsequent segregative conduct." Reply Brief for Federal Petitioners 18, n. 18. The Court similarly dismisses the regulation in a paragraph asserting that a mere change in policy constitutes affirmative action. I disagree.
begins, not ends, our inquiry whether the Board has taken steps adequate to abolish its dual, segregated system."
391 U.S. at 391 U. S. 437.
has not merely the power, but the duty, to render a decree that will, so far as possible, eliminate the discriminatory effects of the past, as well as bar like discrimination in the future."
Louisiana v. United States, 380 U. S. 145, 380 U. S. 154 (1965) (voting rights context) (emphasis added). See also Carter v. Jury Comm'n of Greene County, 396 U. S. 320, 396 U. S. 340 (1970) (Jury selection context).
The United States agrees that Green v. School Board of New Kent County, supra, "held that a public entity which has engaged in de jure racial segregation has an affirmative duty to desegregate. . . ." Reply Brief for Federal Petitioners 16. However, as it does with respect to the applicable regulations, the United States argues that this duty is fulfilled where admissions are normally determined by voluntary choice, so long as the State simply establishes a genuinely race-neutral admission system and refrains from segregative conduct. Id. at 16-18.
is that public officials did, in effect, assign youths to clubs during the period of de jure segregation. Prior to the early 1960's, the 4-H Clubs were organized in the public schools, Pet. App.19a, which were at that time, of course, still segregated. Tr. 4203-4204. Thus, those who wanted to join 4-H were, in effect, "assigned" to join the Club in their segregated school; [Footnote 3/5] it is the racial segregation resulting from this practice that the State is under a duty to eradicate.
"'Freedom of Choice' is not a talisman; it is only a means of a constitutionally required end -- the abolition of the system of.segregation and its effects. If the means prove effective, it is acceptable, but, if it fails to undo segregation, other means must be used to achieve this end."
391 U.S. at 391 U. S. 440 (quoting Bowman v. County School Board, 382 F.2d 326, 333 (CA4 1967) (Sobeloff, J., concurring) (emphasis added)).
"while school boards customarily have the power to create school attendance areas and otherwise designate the school that particular students may attend, there is no statutory or regulatory authority to deny a young person the right to join any Club he or she wishes to join."
Ante at 478 U. S. 408. These observations do not advance the Court's position, however; they simply demonstrate why Green is on all fours with this case.
The second asserted basis for the Court's holding is that, "[w]hile schoolchildren must go to school, there is no compulsion to join 4-H or Homemaker Clubs. . . ." Ante at 478 U. S. 408. It may also be true that, while children learn mathematics at school, they do not do so in 4-H or Homemaker Clubs. But that distinction is about as relevant as the Court's to the issue before us. Nothing in our earlier cases suggests that the State's obligation to desegregate is confined only to those activities in which members of the public are compelled to participate. On the contrary, it is clear that the State's obligation to desegregate formerly segregated entities extends beyond those programs where participation is compulsory to voluntary public amenities such as parks and recreational facilities. See, e.g., Gilmore v. City of Montgomery, 417 U. S. 556 (1974); Watson v. Memphis, 373 U. S. 526 (1963); Dawson v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, 220 F.2d 386, aff'd, 350 U.S. 877 (1955); Muir v. Louisville Park Theatrical Assn., 347 U.S. 971 (1954).
of public schools, it has no application to this wholly different milieu." Ante at 478 U. S. 408. We are left to wonder why this is so. While I agree that the remedy ultimately provided might properly vary in different contexts, I can see no justification in logic or precedent for relieving the State of the overall obligation to desegregate in one context, while imposing that obligation in another. Yet this is precisely what the Court does by blindly ignoring the perpetuation of state-sponsored racial discrimination in the clubs run by the Extension Service.
"The simple truth is that, in the matter of these one-race clubs, the Extension Service has been faced with a dilemma which admits of no easy, readily available solution. On the one hand, it has been under constant pressure from the government to eliminate racially segregated clubs or terminate services to them. On the other hand, there is the stark reality that, in North Carolina, as well as all other states, integration of the races more frequently than not meets with strong resistance."
"The choice thus posed is whether it is better that the Extension Service continue to provide its much-needed services to well over 100,000 North Carolina members while striving to achieve full integration of the clubs, or that it withdraw such services altogether, as the government would have it do. The Extension Service has opted for the former, and, in so doing, this court does not perceive that it has violated the rights of anyone under any law."
Pet. App. 182a-185a. JUSTICE WHITE states that Green was the "effective predicate for imposing busing and pupil assignment programs to end dual school systems. . . ." Ante at 478 U. S. 408.
"[a]lthough the general experience under 'freedom of choice' to date has been such as to indicate its ineffectiveness as a tool of desegregation, there may well be instances in which it can serve as an effective device."
Id. at 439 U. S. 440. On this record, however, it hardly appears to have been an effective device.
In 1980, only 1,442, or 42%, of the clubs were integrated -- that is, contained one or more members of a minority group. GX 11. The number of integrated clubs in mixed communities, meanwhile, had grown from 586 in 1972 to 1,142 in 1977, so that, in 1972, 39.6% of the units in mixed communities were integrated, and, in 1977, 56% of the clubs were so. App. 134.
The United States' proposed findings of fact with respect to both the 4-H Clubs and the Extension Homemaker Clubs pointed to testimony by several witnesses that they were aware of no mixed clubs in their respective counties, even though many of these clubs were in racially mixed communities. Post-Trial Findings of Fact, Conclusions of Law and Proposed Decree of Plaintiff-Intervenors in Civ.Action No. 2879 (EDNC), ¦¦ 245, 255. In an apparent attempt to detract from the accuracy of respondents' statistics, and thus show that there had been even less progress than the statistics indicated, the United States pointed out that the data offered were prepared entirely by the defendants, and were based solely on reports made by county 4-H agents, who were aware of the stated policy of the Extension Service to encourage integration of clubs. The United States also claimed no effort was made to monitor the accuracy of these reports. Id. ¦¦ 250-254. Because of the legal theory adopted by the courts below, no findings of fact were ever made with respect to the significance or accuracy of these data.
"20. The Defendants shall take the following affirmative steps with regard to extension services in order to eliminate the effects of the past and in order to assure an equal opportunity for participation in [Extension Service] services in the future."
"21. The Defendants shall, within 90 days of this Order, identify and define communities within counties according to the regulations and guidelines set forth by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and serve supporting documentation upon attorneys for the Plaintiffs and Plaintiff-Intervenors. . . ."
"22. Consistent with the above paragraph, Defendants are ordered to implement the 'All Reasonable Efforts' provisions of U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations and implementing guidelines as they relate to the desegregation of 4-H and Extension Homemaker clubs in integrated communities."
"23. Defendants shall make every effort to ensure that all community 4-H and Extension Homemaker clubs shall be fully desegregated."
"24. One year from the date of this Order, Defendants shall cease all contact with clubs which are still operated on a segregated basis and have not shown that they have taken all reasonable efforts desegrated [sic] as required by para. 22 above."
Proposed Decree of Plaintiff-Intervenors United States et al. in Civ. Action No. 2879 (EDNC), p. 9.
Indeed, guidelines promulgated by the USDA. also relied on by the United States, support the view that something more than passive nonobstructionism was required of the Extension Service here. With respect to the Extension Service Clubs, those guidelines provided, for example, that the Extension Service "take steps to assure that membership of such clubs is interracial in composition." CA App.1933, 1949.
"Where public officials do not assign persons to a particular program, there is no state-controlled attendance pattern, discriminatory or otherwise, to undo or redraw. Thus, unlike elementary and secondary education, affirmative action to assure a genuine and complete termination of all discrimination in activities affecting admissions will not leave in place any discriminatory conditions caused by previous state-imposed segregation. Such a genuinely race-neutral policy will, absent any subsequent conduct that contributes to segregation, fully dismantle the dual admission system, because it will restore to the victims of discriminatory conduct (and provide to others) the system mandated by the Constitution, i.e., one in which each person has an equal opportunity to participate in government activities free from discrimination and racial separation attributable to state action."
Brief for Federal Petitioners 42-43.
It is not clear whether the Extension Homemaker Clubs were also organized in the segregated schools, but that matters little, given that it is not disputed that these clubs, too, were operated on a segregated basis. Thus, as with the 4-H Clubs, although the Extension Service did not "assign" people to Homemaker Clubs, those who did join were, in effect, "assigned" to join a club of a particular race.

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