Opinion ID: 200396
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Second Variable.

Text: 55 As for the comparison that Beecher demands — the second variable — the Candidates, citing cases decided after the entry of the original Beecher decree, assert that in affirmative action employment cases minority representation must be measured against the specific adult population that comprises the qualified labor pool. See City of Richmond v. J.A. Croson Co., 488 U.S. 469, 501-02, 109 S.Ct. 706, 102 L.Ed.2d 854 (1989); Local 28 of Sheet Metal Workers' Int'l Ass'n v. EEOC, 478 U.S. 421, 479, 106 S.Ct. 3019, 92 L.Ed.2d 344 (1986); Stuart, 951 F.2d at 450, 453-54. They insist that any other focus would be unconstitutional and that, therefore, the relevant comparison in this case necessarily must be to Boston's over-19 black and Hispanic population. See Mass. Gen. Laws ch. 31, § 58 (requiring firefighters to be over 19 years of age). 8 56 The district court held that this point previously had been resolved. Quinn, 204 F.Supp.2d at 163. We agree that stare decisis governs. The last time around, we addressed this aspect of the standard for measuring compliance head-on and held that the proper data are the contemporaneous population figures [for] ... `the percentage of minorities within the community.' Mackin, 969 F.2d at 1276 (quoting the Beecher decree). At that time, we considered the very authorities upon which the Candidates now rely and specifically repudiated the notion that the pertinent language of the decree was overbroad. Id. at 1277-78. Thus, principles of stare decisis required the district court to reject the Candidates' version of how the second variable should be constructed. See Planned Parenthood v. Casey, 505 U.S. 833, 854, 112 S.Ct. 2791, 120 L.Ed.2d 674 (1992) (recognizing that the doctrine of stare decisis embodies [t]he obligation to follow precedent). 57 If more were needed — and we do not think that it is — we note that the Beecher decree unambiguously requires the use of the percentage of minorities in the general population as the second variable for gauging discriminatory patterns in entry-level hiring. See Beecher I, 371 F.Supp. at 523; see also Mackin, 969 F.2d at 1276 (enumerating portions of the Beecher decree that require, or plainly contemplate, reference to the percentage of minorities in the general population). That requirement is fully consistent with the authorities cited by the Candidates. See Croson, 488 U.S. at 501, 109 S.Ct. 706 (In the employment context, we have recognized that for certain entry level positions requiring minimal training, statistical comparisons of the racial composition of the relevant population may be probative of a pattern of discrimination.). Whether or not some other standard might be more precise, the fact remains that the firefighter position is of the type contemplated by the Croson Court. Thus, the parties' original bargain for a community-wide pool and the district court's endorsement of that concept are entitled to great weight. 9 See Navarro-Ayala, 951 F.2d at 1339 (reasoning that the district court is best able to decide certain types of parameters in public institutional reform litigation and, thus, is owed deference when the scope of the parties' original bargain is not at issue). 58 We reaffirm, therefore, that the appropriate standard for measuring compliance with the Beecher decree — what we have termed the second variable — consists of contemporaneous population statistics depicting the percentage of minorities within the overall community. It follows that a fire department subject to the Beecher decree will remain so until that department succeeds in demonstrating that it has achieved the decree's actual objective: rough parity, Mackin, 969 F.2d at 1277, measured by establishing the percentage of minorities among entry-level firefighters in the particular department and comparing that ratio to the percentage of minorities within the general population of the local community. When this comparison demonstrates that parity (or, at least, rough parity) has been attained, then the Beecher decree has outlived its usefulness as to that community's firefighting force.