Opinion ID: 389939
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Propriety of Affirmative Relief

Text: 112 Defendants' attack on the nature of the affirmative relief, as distinct from the size of the list, asserts principally that the order imposes a quota in violation of § 703(j) of the Act and that it impermissibly discriminates against nonminority individuals. Analysis of the order, however, reveals that the court has not imposed a quota; and the record in this case persuades us that the type of relief ordered is fully justified. 113 Despite the considerable deference to which a district court's remedial design is entitled, this Court has subjected numerical hiring orders to particularly close scrutiny. As we noted in the prior appeal in this case, cases involving hiring quotas have been the occasion for some strong differences of opinion among members of this Court. ADE v. Bridgeport, supra, 594 F.2d at 310. Compare Fullilove v. Kreps, 584 F.2d 600, 606-7 (2d Cir. 1978), aff'd sub nom. Fullilove v. Klutznick, -- U.S. --, 100 S.Ct. 2758, 65 L.Ed.2d 902 (1980); Chance v. Board of Examiners, 534 F.2d 993, 1002-03 (2d Cir. 1976) (Oakes, J., dissenting), cert. denied, 431 U.S. 965, 97 S.Ct. 2920, 53 L.Ed.2d 1060 (1977); Kirkland v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, 531 F.2d 5, 8 (2d Cir. 1975) (Mansfield, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc); and Patterson v. Newspaper & Mail Deliverers' Union, 514 F.2d 767 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 427 U.S. 911, 96 S.Ct. 3198, 49 L.Ed.2d 1203 (1976), with Chance v. Board of Examiners, supra (majority opinion); Patterson v. Newspaper & Mail Deliverers' Union, supra, 514 F.2d at 776 (Feinberg, J., concurring); Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, 501 F.2d at 634-39 (Hays, J., dissenting). The Supreme Court's recent opinions in Regents of the University of California v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978) and United Steelworkers of America v. Weber, 443 U.S. 193, 99 S.Ct. 2721, 61 L.Ed.2d 480 (1979), provide no clear guidance as to how these differences should be resolved. Bakke, which revealed strong differences of opinion in the Supreme Court as well, did not involve a temporary quota or goal imposed as a specific remedy to an adjudicated violation of Title VII. Cf. 438 U.S. at 300-02, 98 S.Ct. at 2753-2754 (opinion of Powell, J.); see also Fullilove v. Klutznick, supra, 100 S.Ct. at 2784-85 (Powell, J., concurring). And in Weber, which involved an affirmative action plan that a private employer had adopted voluntarily, the Court specifically excluded from the scope of its inquiry what Title VII requires or what a court might order to remedy a past proved violation of the (Civil Rights) Act. 443 U.S. at 200, 99 S.Ct. at 2726. 114 Despite the differences of opinion in the Supreme Court and in our own Court, several guiding principles emerge from the cases. First, since a primary purpose of Title VII is to make whole the past victims of discrimination, (i) nitial consideration should be given to relief for the plaintiffs and those similarly situated, that is, to identifiable victims of the employer's discriminatory actions. Guardians IV, supra, 630 F.2d at 108. Section 706(g) of the Act makes it clear that such make-whole relief may include an order requiring the hiring of past discriminatees. 42 U.S.C. § 2000e5(g). 22 In addition, the court may seek to eradicate the discriminatory effects of proven Title VII violations, see, e. g., Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, 501 F.2d at 633 (elimination of discriminatory effects is permissible), by eliminating the disparate impact of a discriminatory exam. See Guardians IV, supra, 630 F.2d at 108. 115 Second, the remedy for a proven violation of anti-discrimination laws need not be color blind but may in the appropriate case include a racial or ethnic factor. Fullilove v. Klutznick, supra, 100 S.Ct. at 2777 (opinion of Burger, C. J.). Section 706(g) specifically provides that upon finding a violation a court may order such affirmative action as may be appropriate, 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-5(g), and § 703(j) of the Act does not bar race-conscious relief. That section provides, in pertinent part, as follows: 116 Nothing contained in this subchapter shall be interpreted to require any employer to grant preferential treatment to any individual or to any group on account of an imbalance which may exist with respect to the total number or percentage of persons of any race in comparison with the total number or percentage of persons of such race in any community, State, section, or other area, or in the available work force in any community, State, section, or other area. 117 42 U.S.C. § 2000e-2(j). As this Court has stated many times, what § 703(j) proscribes is racial preference where racial imbalance is not related to discrimination; but it does not proscribe imposition of a racial goal as an exercise of remedial authority under § 706(g) to correct an imbalance that has resulted from discrimination. See, e. g., EEOC v. Local 638, supra, 532 F.2d at 827-28; Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, 501 F.2d at 630-31; United States v. Wood, Wire and Metal Lathers Int'l Union, Local 46, 471 F.2d 408, 412-13 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 412 U.S. 939, 93 S.Ct. 2773, 37 L.Ed.2d 398 (1973). And while some members of this Court have expressed reservations as to the proper interpretation of § 703(j), see e. g., EEOC v. Local 638, supra, 532 F.2d at 834 (Feinberg, J., concurring); Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, 501 F.2d at 636-37 (Hays, J., dissenting), they have not, to our knowledge, suggested that it bars a provision that not only gives affirmative relief but simultaneously awards compensatory relief by requiring the hiring of the identifiable victims of discriminatory employment practices. 118 Balanced against the broad equitable power to remedy Title VII violations is a recognition that the use of (racial) goals means, in practice, that certain nonminority persons will be kept out solely on account of their race or ethnic background and that this impinges on the basic principle that individuals are to be judged as individuals, not as members of particular racial groups. EEOC v. Local 638, supra, 532 F.2d at 827. Accordingly, several members of this Court have stressed that quotas or goals must be approached only with reluctance, or at least in a gingerly fashion. See, e. g., Kirkland v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, 520 F.2d 420, 427 (2d Cir.), rehearing en banc denied, 531 F.2d 5 (2d Cir. 1975), cert. denied, 429 U.S. 823, 97 S.Ct. 73, 50 L.Ed.2d 84 (1976); EEOC v. Local 638, supra; Vulcan Society, supra, 490 F.2d at 398-99. In Kirkland, it was suggested that racial quotas are appropriate only when there has been a clear-cut pattern of long-continued and egregious racial discrimination and the reverse discriminatory effects are not felt by a small number of readily identifiable individuals. 520 F.2d at 427, 429. See also EEOC v. Local 638, supra, 532 F.2d at 827-28. 119 Yet the mere possibility that a race-conscious remedy may have an adverse impact on nonminority individuals does not render that remedy impermissible. In the context of seniority relief, for example, the Supreme Court has warned that the denial of relief 120 to identifiable victims of racial discrimination on the sole ground that such relief diminishes the expectations of other, arguably innocent, employees would if applied generally frustrate the central make whole objective of Title VII. 121 Franks v. Bowman Transp. Co., supra, 424 U.S. at 774, 96 S.Ct. at 1269. See also Kirkland v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, supra, 531 F.2d at 8 (Mansfield, J., dissenting from denial of rehearing en banc). 122 Turning to the record in the present case, we are persuaded that the type of affirmative relief ordered here i. e., that 102 minority candidates, to be identified, be offered firefighter positions before anyone else may be hired fits comfortably within the foregoing framework. The order gives primary consideration to actual victims of the City's past discrimination and was carefully tailored to fit the violations found. The City's tests, policies and practices unlawfully discriminated against minority candidates who applied; its discriminatory policies and practices unlawfully deterred other minority candidates from applying. 23 The court's order requires that the first persons to be placed on the list be minority candidates who applied to take the 1971 or 1975 exam and who were not offered, but still seek, employment in the fire department. 24 The next persons to be included are minority candidates who were unlawfully deterred from applying. To this extent the affirmative relief ordered by the district court seeks not only to remedy the effects of past discrimination but to further the make whole purpose which is central to the statutory scheme. 123 At this stage, of course, it cannot be known whether the total number of minority candidates who failed the exams or were deterred from applying is greater or less than the number of places on the required offering list. If the total exceeds the number of places, the affirmative relief ordered by the court will have been only compensatory 25 requiring offers only to identifiable victims of past discrimination and should thus pass muster even with members of this Court who are reluctant to impose quotas or goals. See, e. g., EEOC v. Local 638, supra, 532 F.2d at 834 (Feinberg, J., concurring) (Focusing on individuals rather than on groups in granting relief, as by providing an immediate remedy to identifiable plaintiffs who were themselves discriminatorily denied jobs, can accomplish much without resort to quotas.); Kirkland v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, supra, 520 F.2d at 429 (Van Graafeiland, J., joined by Timbers and Hays, JJ.) (We must address ourselves to individual rights.). 124 To the extent that the number of discriminatees who still seek firefighter jobs is less than the number of places on the list, the district court's order requires the City to devise a method for identifying additional minority persons to fill out the list. To this extent the affirmative relief would be more extensive than the compensatory relief and would be directed solely toward alleviating the effects of the City's past discrimination. It is this aspect of the order i. e., the contingent requirement of a minority offering in excess of the number of identifiable, still interested discriminatees that must be examined in light of the principles applicable to racial goals. Several factors persuade us that the nature of the court's noncompensatory efforts to eliminate the effects of past discrimination do not offend Title VII or the Constitution. 125 Preliminarily we observe that the relief ordered was neither intended to be, nor is it, a quota. In Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, a majority of the panel offered the following distinction between hiring quotas and hiring goals: 126 (W)hile to some the two words may be synonymous, the term quota implies a permanence not associated with goal. For our purposes the significance of the distinction lies in the fact that once a prescribed goal is achieved the Union will not be obligated to maintain it, provided, of course, the Union does not engage in discriminatory conduct. 127 501 F.2d at 628 n.3. See also Kirkland v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, supra, 520 F.2d at 429-30. With this distinction in mind, Judge Daly stated that he would impose a hiring goal, and that he specifically decline(d) to impose a hiring quota. 479 F.Supp. at 114. We agree that the order does not impose a quota. The affirmative requirement as to hiring does not permanently intrude into the City's hiring process. There are 121 vacancies in the fire department. The order requires the City to make its next 102 26 offers to the minority candidates whose names are placed on the list to be compiled. Thereafter no numerical requirements whatever are imposed on the City, either as to the remaining vacancies or future vacancies: the City is required actively to recruit minority candidates to compete for vacancies in the fire department; and it is required to hire on a nondiscriminatory basis; but no permanent numerical requirements are established. 128 Further, we note that the court's order is properly viewed as setting hiring goals because it may well be that not all of the 102 minority candidates to be offered positions will actually accept the City's offers. 27 The City has represented that it cannot train new firefighters at a rate faster than 20 every three to six months. If the list contained as many as 102 names, a period of more than two years could elapse before the last candidates on the list received offers. If as few as 73 names are placed on the list, it appears that at least a year would elapse before the last persons on the list received offers. It is entirely possible that some of the candidates whose names are not near the top of the list will eventually decline to accept appointment to the fire department because of a change in interest or in circumstances during the one to two year interim period. Thus, although the order requires that the next 102 offers be made to minority candidates, it does not mean that minority candidates will be the next 102 persons hired. 129 Nor does the fact that no nonminority persons will be offered firefighter positions until the City has offered such positions to the persons on the required list mean that the order imposes 100% hiring goals (or, as defendants characterize it, a 100% quota). The present order must be read in conjunction with the court's interim hiring orders of 1976 and 1977. Those interim orders, which permitted the hiring of 84 firefighters from the 1975 list, expressly provided that those 84 appointments would be counted as part of any subsequent court-ordered hiring plan. Thus although the 1979 hiring order is, on its face, limited to minority appointments, 81 nonminority appointments have already been made as part of the hiring plan. As a result of our modification of the size of the offering list, see Part B, infra, the court's order will in fact result in minority appointments to fewer than 50% of the firefighter positions filled since 1975. 130 Moreover, the order does not require the City to achieve a specified racial balance in the fire department; rather the number of minority candidates to whom firefighter positions must be offered is measured against the number of firefighters hired since the first adjudicated discriminatory act. In this respect, the scope of the remedy is more limited than other hiring goals previously approved by this Court (and, indeed, more limited than the initial remedial order in this case see Part I.C. supra). In Rios v. Enterprise Ass'n Steamfitters Local 638, supra, and EEOC v. Local 638, supra, for example, the challenged orders required the defendant unions to achieve certain goals of overall minority membership. In Vulcan Society of the New York City Fire Dep't v. Civil Service Comm'n, supra, 490 F.2d at 399, this Court approved a hiring ratio that was midway between what would have been appropriate on the basis of correcting the inequities of the challenged exam and the plaintiffs' demands for much more extensive relief. By focusing solely on appointments during the period of proven civil rights violations rather than on overall membership in the fire department, the order here clearly seeks to correct past discriminatory practices, rather than to attain racial balance, United States v. Wood, Wire & Metal Lathers Int'l Union, Local 46, supra, 471 F.2d at 413, thereby avoiding any possible conflict with § 703(j). 131 Nor do we see that any adverse effects of the establishment of the required offering list will fall upon 'a small number of readily identifiable' nonminority persons. ADE v. City of Bridgeport, supra, 594 F.2d at 310, quoting Kirkland v. New York State Dep't of Correctional Services, supra, 520 F.2d at 429. Those applicants who were hired pursuant to the two interim hiring orders will retain their jobs. Although other nonminority applicants who were placed on the City's appointment list pursuant to the 1975 exam will not be offered positions as early as, or may be passed over in favor of, lower-ranked minority applicants, and possibly in favor of minority persons who did not apply for positions as firefighters, this result will not defeat the nonminority applicants' legitimate expectations. The only source of their expectations was the 1975 exam; and that exam was illegal. And since the mere fact of application to take the exam could not have given rise to any very credible expectation of actual employment, nonminority applicants will not be unduly burdened if some minority nonapplicants are hired pursuant to the court's order. 132 Finally, the hiring goal is amply supported by the district court's conclusion that the City of Bridgeport has engaged in a 'clear-cut pattern of long-continued and egregious racial discrimination' with regard to hiring in the Bridgeport Fire Department. 479 F.Supp. at 112-13. The court based this conclusion, and the conclusion that it was Bridgeport's policy to discriminate against minorities, on specific findings of fact. These included the findings that, in addition to administering discriminatory exams, the City had purposely failed to recruit minority applicants, 28 had actively deterred interested minority applicants, and had discriminated against several individual minority candidates, and that the City's failure to recruit and its discriminatory treatment of minority individuals were not in good faith. The factual predicates for the court's conclusion of long-standing egregious discrimination are well supported by the evidence and are not challenged on this appeal. 133 In sum, we conclude that the district court's order requiring the City to compile a list of minority persons, giving priority to those who were victims of the City's discrimination, and to offer firefighter positions to those persons before hiring anyone else, was not an abuse of the court's discretion. We turn now to the question of the appropriateness of court's selection of 102 as the number of offerees.