Opinion ID: 654597
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender

Text: 27 Choice of the appropriate standard of review turns on the nature of the classification. Because under equal protection analysis classifications based on race, ethnicity, or gender are inherently suspect, they merit closer judicial attention. City of Cleburne v. Cleburne Living Center, Inc., 473 U.S. 432, 440, 105 S.Ct. 3249, 3254, 87 L.Ed.2d 313 (1985). Accordingly, we must determine whether the Ordinance contains race- or gender-based classifications. The Ordinance's classification scheme is spelled out in its definition of socially and economically disadvantaged persons, described as: 28 those individuals who have either been subjected to racial, sexual or ethnic prejudice because of their identity as a member of a group or differential treatment because of their handicap without regard to their individual qualities, and whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired due to diminished capital and credit opportunities as compared to others in the same business area who are not socially disadvantaged. Sec. 17-501(11). 29 The district court interpreted this definition to apply only to minorities, women, and handicapped persons and viewed the definition's economic criteria as in addition to rather than in lieu of race, ethnicity, gender, and handicap. Therefore, it applied strict scrutiny to the racial preference under Croson and intermediate scrutiny to the gender preference under Mississippi University for Women v. Hogan, 458 U.S. 718, 724, 102 S.Ct. 3331, 3336, 73 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1982). 9 30 Disputing this analysis, the City contends the two categories, social disadvantage (race, gender, or handicap), and economic disadvantage (diminished capital and credit opportunities), are disjunctive, so that a contractor who can satisfy either category qualifies as socially and economically disadvantaged. Accordingly, the City continues, we should apply rational basis review to the Ordinance rather than strict or intermediate scrutiny because race and gender are only two criteria for determining whether a contractor is a DBE but are not prerequisites to that determination. 31 We agree with the district court that the definition of socially and economically disadvantaged individuals includes only individuals who are both victims of prejudice based on status and economically deprived. This is the only reasonable interpretation and is dictated by the conjunctive phrase socially and economically disadvantaged, as well as the use of the word and connecting the descriptions of each category of disadvantage. Sec. 17-501(11) (individuals subject to ... prejudice because of their identity as a member of a group ... and whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired ...) (emphasis added). Additionally, the last clause of the definition describes economically disadvantaged individuals as those whose ability to compete in the free enterprise system has been impaired ... as compared to others ... who are not socially disadvantaged. This clause demonstrates the drafters wished to rectify only economic disadvantage that results from social disadvantage, i.e., prejudice based on race, ethnicity, gender, or handicapped status. The plain language of the Ordinance forecloses the City's argument that a white male contractor could qualify for preferential treatment solely on the basis of economic disadvantage. 32 The City also relies on the affidavit of Curtis Jones, Executive Director of the Minority Business Enterprise Council, who asserts that any disadvantaged member of plaintiff organizations ... [is] eligible for certification as a DBE without regard to their race, gender or physical capability. The [Council] considers economic and social factors in addition to race and gender in determining whether an applicant should be certified as a DBE. App. 123. But Jones' affidavit, which neither explains its interpretation nor has any legal force by itself, cannot overcome the plain language of the Ordinance. The affidavit is also inconsistent with the Council's regulations, which incorporate the Ordinance's definition verbatim. Regulations Sec. 1.3(S). 33 Additionally, the City seeks to distinguish Croson on the ground that the Philadelphia City Council, unlike the Richmond City Council, does not have a Black majority. This distinction comes from United States v. Carolene Products Co., 304 U.S. 144, 152-53 n. 4, 58 S.Ct. 778, 783-84 n. 4, 82 L.Ed. 1234 (1938), where the Court first suggested heightened scrutiny under the Equal Protection Clause might be appropriate for laws that prejudiced discrete and insular minorities because those groups would consistently be outvoted in legislatures and therefore could turn only to the judiciary for help. Under this theory, affirmative action programs typically do not merit heightened scrutiny because they represent examples of a white majority burdening itself. Croson, 488 U.S. at 496-97, 109 S.Ct. at 723-24 (citing John Hart Ely, The Constitutionality of Reverse Racial Discrimination, 41 U.Chi.L.Rev. 723, 739 n. 58 (1974)). Logically, such programs are suspect where they are enacted by a predominantly Black legislature. Seeid. at 497, 109 S.Ct. at 724. 34 But the Croson Court expressly did not rely on the Carolene Products theory. In its discussion, the Court stated: [e]ven were we to accept a reading of the guarantee of equal protection under which the level of scrutiny varies according to the ability of different groups to defend their interests in the representative process, heightened scrutiny would still be appropriate in the circumstances of this case.... 488 U.S. at 495, 109 S.Ct. at 722; see alsoO'Donnell Constr. Co. v. District of Columbia, 963 F.2d 420, 424 (D.C.Cir.1992) (The outcome in Croson, expressed in the portions of the opinion joined by a majority, did not turn on who possessed political power in Richmond). Therefore, we do not believe the racial makeup of the Philadelphia City Council changes the standard of review in this case. 35 Even were the Philadelphia City Council comprised of a Black majority, we would not rely on this fact in choosing a standard of review. Application of this theory in a reverse discrimination case, if logical, is ahistorical; it renders somewhat hollow the promise of racial progress through political power. More generally, the Carolene Products theory puts a court in the awkward position of nullifying legislative outcomes based on judges' own assumptions about the political process. And as one commentator has noted, the process of selecting groups as discrete and insular minorities necessarily requires normative judgments about political outcomes, i.e., those groups identified as minorities are those whose interests the court believes are inadequately protected by existing policies. Terrance Sandalow, The Distrust of Politics, 56 N.Y.U.L.Rev. 446, 466-67 (1981). Such judgments improperly interfere with the legislative will. For these reasons, we conclude the district court properly applied strict scrutiny to the racial preference in the Ordinance. 36 We next consider the proper standard of review for the Ordinance's gender preference. In Hogan, the Court held a gender-based classification favoring women merited intermediate scrutiny. 458 U.S. at 728, 102 S.Ct. at 3338. The Ordinance is such a program. Several federal courts have applied intermediate scrutiny to similar gender preferences contained in state and municipal affirmative action contracting programs. Coral Constr. Co. v. King County, 941 F.2d 910, 930 (9th Cir.1991), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 112 S.Ct. 875, 116 L.Ed.2d 780 (1992); Michigan Road Builders Ass'n, Inc. v. Milliken, 834 F.2d 583, 595 (6th Cir.1987), aff'd mem., 489 U.S. 1061, 109 S.Ct. 1333, 103 L.Ed.2d 804 (1989); Associated General Contractors of Cal. v. City and County of San Francisco, 813 F.2d 922, 942 (9th Cir.1987); Main Line Paving Co. v. Board of Educ., 725 F.Supp. 1349, 1362 (E.D.Pa.1989). Application of intermediate scrutiny to the Ordinance's gender preference also follows logically from Croson, which held municipal affirmative action programs benefiting racial minorities merit the same standard of review as that given other race-based classifications. For these reasons, we reject, as did the district court, those cases applying strict scrutiny to gender-based classifications. Cone Corp. v. Hillsborough County, 908 F.2d 908 (11th Cir.), cert. denied, 498 U.S. 983, 111 S.Ct. 516, 112 L.Ed.2d 528 (1990); Conlin v. Blanchard, 890 F.2d 811, 816 (6th Cir.1989); American Subcontractors Ass'n v. City of Atlanta, 259 Ga. 14, 376 S.E.2d 662 (1989). As the district court noted, 735 F.Supp. at 1302, these cases neither explained their choice of the strict scrutiny standard nor cited any language in Croson supporting that choice. Accordingly, we agree with the district court's choice of intermediate scrutiny to review the Ordinance's gender preference.