Opinion ID: 325324
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Neutral Practices Perpetuating Vestiges of Discrimination.

Text: 20 The Supreme Court has announced that a district court has: 21 not merely the power but the duty to render a decree which will so far as possible eliminate the discriminatory effects of the past as well as bar like discrimination in the future. 22 Louisiana v. United States, 380 U.S. 145, 154, 85 S.Ct. 817, 822, 13 L.Ed.2d 709 (1965) (emphasis added). As applied to employment discrimination cases, the concept which originated in Quarles v. Philip Morris, Inc., 279 F.Supp. 505, 516 (E.D.Va.1968) that Congress did not intend to freeze an entire generation of Negro employees into discriminatory patterns that existed before the Act, was adopted by the Supreme Court in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., supra, 401 U.S. at 430, 91 S.Ct. at 853: 23 Under the Act, practices, procedures, or tests neutral on their face, and even neutral in terms of intent, cannot be maintained if they operate to 'freeze' the status quo of prior discriminatory employment practices. 24 Pre-Act discriminatory conduct is thus an integral component in the calculus of employment discrimination and remedial relief. United States v. N.L. Industries, supra, 479 F.2d at 360--361 (and cases therein cited). Neutral policies which perpetuate past discrimination cannot be continued unless there is a showing of 'compelling business necessity.' United States v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry., 464 F.2d 301, 308, (8th Cir. 1972), cert. denied, 409 U.S. 1107, 93 S.Ct. 900, 34 L.Ed.2d 687 (1973). See also Griggs v. Duke Power Co., supra, 401 U.S. at 431, 91 S.Ct. 849; United States v. N.L. Industries, supra, 479 F.2d at 364--365. Such a business necessity connotes an irresistible demand.' The system in question must not only foster safety and efficiency, but must be essential to that goal.' United States v. St. Louis-San Francisco Ry., supra, 464 F.2d at 308. In United States v. N.L. Industries, supra, 479 F.2d at 365, we stated: 25 (T)he business purpose must be sufficiently compelling to override any racial impact; the challenged practice must effectively carry out the business purpose it is alleged to serve; and there must be available no acceptable alternative policies or practices which would better accomplish the business purpose advanced, or accomplish it equally well with a lesser differential racial impact. (Citation omitted.) 26 Thus where the prescribed qualifications rest on factors, the ability to obtain which was denied minority applicants under past discriminatory policies, then the criteria must be modified, to the extent possible, so as to substitute functionally equivalent criteria which does not have a discriminatory effect. Only when there are 'available no acceptable alternative policies or practices which would . . . accomplish (the business purpose advanced) equally well with a lesser differential racial impact,' might a neutral policy perpetuating prior discrimination be retained. United States v. N.L. Industries, supra, 479 F.2d at 365. 27