Opinion ID: 515730
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Division's Motion

Text: 15 In a concurring opinion in Wygant, 476 U.S. at 284, 106 S.Ct. at 1852, Justice O'Connor harmonized the approaches individual justices had taken in that case and in prior cases to the showing defendants must make in supporting an affirmative action plan under attack. She said that while a public employer does not have to make findings that it engaged in past discrimination to implement an affirmative action plan, id. at 290, 106 S.Ct. at 1855 (O'Connor, J., concurring); see also Johnson v. Transportation Agency, 480 U.S. 616, 630 n. 8, 107 S.Ct. 1442, 1451 n. 8, 94 L.Ed.2d 615 (1987), it must have a firm basis for believing that remedial action is required. Wygant, 476 U.S. at 286, 106 S.Ct. at 1853. Division's plan can be justified only if the discriminatory impact of the seniority-based reassignment policy was the result of past discrimination. 16 Although statistical evidence alone may be sufficient to support a finding of a past constitutional violation, see id. at 293, 106 S.Ct. at 1857; DPOA, 608 F.2d at 686, the statistics presented below are insufficient to provide a firm basis for believing that the Division engaged in past discriminatory practices. Division's statistics just do not show that connection. The bare statements in the record are inadequate to link the statistics to past discriminatory practices. 17 In its supporting affidavits, the Division alludes to past discriminatory hiring practices that may have contributed to the dominance of White males in the senior ranks of parole officers. These practices included the placing of Black officers in predominantly Black, high crime offices and the limiting of women officers' caseloads to women parolees. J.App. at 97-98, 103, 108, 302-03. Evidence regarding these practices is sketchy, however, and there is no indication of their duration or effect. Thus, while appellees have shown that there may have been a firm basis for their engaging in an affirmative action plan, they have not yet satisfactorily established this, and thus the grant of summary judgment to Division was inappropriate.