Opinion ID: 793365
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Impact of the Relief on Third Parties

Text: 44 The final Paradise factor ensures a remedy does not impose an unacceptable burden on innocent third parties. Paradise, 480 U.S. at 182, 107 S.Ct. 1053. The district court found the impact on third parties not overly significant in this case. See Dean, slip op. at 18. The Supreme Court has given little guidance on this factor, but has made a few things clear. First, remedies requiring nonminorities to be fired impose a severe, and possibly unacceptable, burden on third parties. Paradise, 480 U.S. at 182, 107 S.Ct. 1053. Hiring preferences are less burdensome. See id. Second, remedies allowing unqualified minorities to be hired are likely not narrowly tailored. See id. at 183, 107 S.Ct. 1053. Third, remedies merely postponing a benefit to third parties are less burdensome than ones permanently denying a benefit. See id. 45 We agree with the district court that the impact on nonminorities is not significant enough to make the decree and hiring policy unconstitutional per se. We do so because the remedies in this case have all three characteristics the Supreme Court has previously said favor a finding of narrow tailoring within the context of this factor: (1) they do not require nonminorities to be fired; (2) they do not require unqualified minorities to be hired; and (3) they do not pose an absolute bar to nonminority employment. Paradise, 480 U.S. at 182-83, 107 S.Ct. 1053. This factor alone does not prevent a finding of narrow tailoring. 46 In sum, the district court on remand must develop the record further and re-evaluate both whether the decree and the hiring process were still justified at the time of suit by a compelling government interest and whether they were narrowly tailored to further that interest.