Opinion ID: 796563
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Clearly Established Law During the Relevant Period

Text: 28 Qualified immunity protects officials from suit and from liability for civil damages when, at the time of the challenged action, the contours of the constitutional right were not so defined as to put the defendant officials on notice that their conduct amounted to a constitutional violation. See Hope v. Pelzer, 536 U.S. 730, 739, 122 S.Ct. 2508, 153 L.Ed.2d 666 (2002) (equating the right of an official sued for damages under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 to fair notice to that of an official charged with criminal liability under the § 1983 criminal counterpart, 18 U.S.C. § 242). The relevant, dispositive inquiry in determining whether a right is clearly established is whether it would be clear to a reasonable officer that his conduct was unlawful in the situation he confronted. Saucier, 533 U.S. at 202, 121 S.Ct. 2151 (citing Wilson v. Layne, 526 U.S. 603, 615, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 143 L.Ed.2d 818 (1999)). In order to determine whether the law is clearly established, we must inquire whether, in light of preexisting law, the unlawfulness [of the conduct was] apparent. Hope, 536 U.S. at 739, 122 S.Ct. 2508 (citing Anderson v. Creighton, 483 U.S. 635, 640, 107 S.Ct. 3034, 97 L.Ed.2d 523 (1987)). 29 Accordingly, we must determine whether the state of the law with respect to affirmative action during the relevant period would have put a reasonable official on notice that the approach taken by the Board was unconstitutional. We have little difficulty in concluding that the law was clear. Following the Supreme Court's opinions in City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 109 S.Ct. 706, 102 L.Ed.2d 854 (1989), and Adarand Constructors, Inc. v. Pena, 515 U.S. 200, 115 S.Ct. 2097, 132 L.Ed.2d 158 (1995), it was clear that all racial classifications, imposed by whatever federal, state, or local government actor must comport with strict scrutiny. Adarand, 515 U.S. at 227, 115 S.Ct. 2097. Our own precedent during the period in question supports the view that the approach taken would not pass constitutional muster. In Cygnar v. City of Chicago, 865 F.2d 827 (7th Cir.1989), we stated that the onus is on state defendants to fully and properly articulate the factual predicate for their [affirmative action] `plan'. Id. at 840. Cygnar arose relatively early in the development of affirmative action jurisprudence, at a time when courts were more concerned with statistical evidence of past discrimination to justify present remedial affirmative action. Here, however, we are concerned with the separate compelling interest in diversity as a justification. Nonetheless, we clearly placed the burden on defendants who act in a racially discriminatory manner to do so only on the basis of established facts demonstrating real necessity. 11 We ultimately affirmed the district court's ruling that the City was not liable for the constitutional violation in Cygnar ; we did so, however, by concluding that, although the defendants' conduct in using an insufficiently justified affirmative action plan may well violate today's established constitutional law standards, the law in 1984 (at the time of the challenged transfers) was not sufficiently clear to deny the defendants qualified immunity. Id. at 844 (emphasis in original). 30 In Billish v. City of Chicago, 989 F.2d 890 (7th Cir.1993) (en banc) (reversing a district court's dismissal of plaintiffs' equal protection claims), we relied on our ruling in Cygnar when we again evaluated Chicago's attempt to remedy past discrimination, an interest that, by then, the Supreme Court had identified as sufficiently compelling under some circumstances to justify a narrowly tailored remedy, see City of Richmond, 488 U.S. at 493, 109 S.Ct. 706. The city's remedial efforts involved a race-conscious promotion plan; in our review, we stated that the measures adopted could survive only where they had been carefully designed to avoid unnecessary injury to white persons, Billish, 989 F.2d at 893. Several years later, we further stated, in Wittmer, that to demonstrate such careful crafting consistent with the Constitution, the defendant must 31 show that they are motivated by a truly powerful and worthy concern and that the racial measure that they have adopted is a plainly apt response to that concern. They must show that they had to do something and had no alternative to what they did. The concern and the response, moreover, must be substantiated and not merely asserted. 32 87 F.3d at 918 (emphasis added). Wittmer then approved of the promotion of a single black staff member to lieutenant because a compelling interest in some representation of African-Americans on the command staff at a boot camp with a predominantly African-American inmate population had been shown and because a single promotion was the least discriminatory remedial action the state could take under the circumstances. Id. at 920-21. 33 These cases clearly establish that narrow tailoring means precisely what it says: Race-based preferences must be constructed carefully to discriminate no more than necessary to meet whatever compelling state interest is at issue. Moreover, defendants must substantiate both the need and the remedy sufficient to permit our meaningful review. The defendants in this action had fair notice that their actions were outside the permissible bounds of racial preferences at the time that they acted. 34 Because we conclude that the acts of the Commissioners, as found by the jury, in participating in discrimination against the plaintiffs, violated the constitutional rights of the plaintiffs and because we conclude that, at the time of their acts, the constitutional violation was clearly established, we also must conclude that the defendants are not entitled to qualified immunity. Accordingly, we affirm the judgment of the district court with respect to the liability of the Commissioners under 42 U.S.C. § 1983.