Opinion ID: 566091
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: What Degree of Imbalance is Approaching a Prima Facie

Text: 52 Case of a Violation? 53 The statistical imbalance between minorities and nonminorities in the relevant work force and available labor pool must be approaching a prima facie case of a constitutional or statutory violation before a public employer may voluntarily adopt racial or gender preferences. Croson, 488 U.S. at 500, 109 S.Ct. at 724, 102 L.Ed.2d at 886; see also Wygant, 476 U.S. at 274-75, 106 S.Ct. at 1847, 90 L.Ed.2d at 269 (plurality opinion), and id. at 293, 106 S.Ct. at 1857, 90 L.Ed.2d at 280 (O'Connor, J., concurring). Prior Court rulings indicate what sort of statistical disparity is required to make out a prima facie case of direct discrimination against an employer. The general rule is that the disparity must be greater than two or three standard deviations before it can be inferred that the employer has engaged in illegal discrimination under Title VII. Casteneda v. Partida, 430 U.S. 482, 497 n. 17, 97 S.Ct. 1272, 1281, 51 L.Ed.2d 498, 512 (1977); see also Hazelwood, 433 U.S. at 308, 97 S.Ct. at 2741, 53 L.Ed.2d at 777. The Court has also called that sort of imbalance a gross statistical disparit[y]. Hazelwood, 433 U.S. at 307, 97 S.Ct. at 2741, 53 L.Ed.2d at 777, cited with approval in Croson, 488 U.S. at 501, 109 S.Ct. at 725, 102 L.Ed.2d at 887. 32 54 I find that the percentages of minorities in the Metropolitan Dade County Fire Department, as compared with the percentages of minorities in Dade County, reveals a statistical disparity far in excess of two or three standard deviations. 33 55 I would heed Justice Holmes' warning that [t]he passion for equality sometimes leads to hollow formula Postal Telegraph-Cable Co. v. Tonopah & T.R. Co., 248 U.S. 471, 475, 39 S.Ct. 162, 164, 63 L.Ed. 365, 371 (1919); see also Watson v. Fort Worth Bank and Trust, 487 U.S. 977 at 995, 108 S.Ct. 2777 at 2789, 101 L.Ed.2d 827 at 846 n. 3 (1988) (we have emphasized the useful role that statistical methods can have in Title VII cases, but we have not suggested that any particular number of standard deviations can determine whether a plaintiff has made out a prima facie case in the complex area of employment discrimination.... Nor has a consensus developed around any alternative mathematical standard). However, the number of standard deviations in the case before the Court exceeds the approximate minimum to a degree sufficient to avoid the risks associated with the rigid application of an inflexible mathematical formula.