Opinion ID: 685199
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Equal Protection Clause: Gender Discrimination

Text: 26 Parks' final argument on appeal is that the Warner Robins policy will result in a disparate impact on women because the city employs a greater number of men as supervisors. A gender-based classification violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment if the classification is not substantially related to the achievement of important governmental objectives. Personnel Adm'r v. Feeney, 442 U.S. 256, 273, 99 S.Ct. 2282, 2293, 60 L.Ed.2d 870 (1979); Craig v. Boren, 429 U.S. 190, 197, 97 S.Ct. 451, 457, 50 L.Ed.2d 397 (1976). 27 Additionally, proof of discriminatory intent or purpose is a necessary prerequisite to any Equal Protection Clause claim. Hernandez v. New York, 500 U.S. 352, 359-60, 111 S.Ct. 1859, 1866, 114 L.Ed.2d 395 (1991) (A court addressing this issue must keep in mind the fundamental principle that 'official action will not be held unconstitutional solely because it results in a racially disproportionate impact.... Proof of racially discriminatory intent or purpose is required to show a violation of the Equal Protection Clause.'  (omission in original) (quoting Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 264-265, 97 S.Ct. 555, 563, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977))); accord Washington v. Davis, 426 U.S. 229, 239, 96 S.Ct. 2040, 2047, 48 L.Ed.2d 597 (1976); Elston v. Talladega County Bd. of Educ., 997 F.2d 1394, 1406 (11th Cir.1993). This requirement applies with equal force to a case involving alleged gender discrimination. Feeney, 442 U.S. at 274, 99 S.Ct. at 2293 (When a statute gender-neutral on its face is challenged on the ground that its effects upon women are disproportionately adverse, a twofold inquiry is thus appropriate.... [T]he second question is whether the adverse effect reflects invidious gender-based discrimination.). Possible indicia of discriminatory intent include a clear pattern of disparate impact, unexplainable on grounds other than race; the historical background of the challenged decision or the specific events leading up to the decision; procedural or substantive departures from the norm; and the legislative or administrative history of the challenged statute. Village of Arlington Heights v. Metropolitan Housing Dev. Corp., 429 U.S. 252, 266-68, 97 S.Ct. 555, 564-65, 50 L.Ed.2d 450 (1977). 28 Parks' disparate impact claim relies upon her assertion that eighty-four percent of Warner Robins' supervisory employees are men. Consequently, she argues, a disproportionate number of employees who are forced to transfer to another department or to leave the city's employ will be women. As the Supreme Court's holding in Personnel Adm'r v. Feeney indicates, such a showing is insufficient to prove discriminatory intent. In Feeney, the Court upheld a state law that created an absolute hiring preference for military veterans applying for state jobs. Feeney, 442 U.S. at 275, 99 S.Ct. at 2294. At the time that the litigation commenced, over ninety-eight percent of the veterans in Massachusetts were male, and over one-fourth of the Massachusetts population were veterans. Id. at 270, 99 S.Ct. at 2291. The Court described the impact of the Massachusetts plan on women as severe. Id. at 271, 99 S.Ct. at 2292. 29 The Feeney Court rejected the plaintiff-appellee's argument that because a disparate impact against women was the obvious consequence of the statute's enactment, the Massachusetts legislature must have intended to discriminate against women. The Court held that  '[d]iscriminatory purpose' ... implies more than intent as volition or intent as awareness of consequences. It implies that the decisionmaker ... selected or reaffirmed a particular course of action at least in part 'because of,' not merely 'in spite of,' its adverse effects upon an identifiable group. Id. at 279, 99 S.Ct. at 2296 (citation and footnote omitted). Assuming arguendo that Parks has demonstrated disparate impact, her equal protection claim must still fail for lack of a showing of discriminatory intent. See id. at 274, 99 S.Ct. at 2293 ([I]mpact provides an 'important starting point,' but purposeful discrimination is 'the condition that offends the Constitution.'  (quoting Arlington Heights, 429 U.S. at 266, 97 S.Ct. at 564, and Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Bd. of Educ., 402 U.S. 1, 16, 91 S.Ct. 1267, 1276, 28 L.Ed.2d 554 (1971))); Arlington Heights, 429 U.S. at 265, 97 S.Ct. at 563 ( 'Disproportionate impact is not irrelevant, but it is not the sole touchstone of an invidious racial discrimination.'  (quoting Davis, 426 U.S. at 242, 96 S.Ct. at 2049)). 30 Parks' allegations cite none of the other traditional indicia of discriminatory intent listed by the Court in Arlington Heights. She has not alleged facts surrounding the city's decision to apply the policy to her that could indicate discriminatory intent, nor has she identified any such intent in the legislative history of the statute. Her situation is not the result of any procedural or substantive departures from the norm that would reveal discriminatory intent. In her brief, Parks lists four city employees as examples of individuals who remain on the city payroll despite their alleged violation of the anti-nepotism policy. Since three of the four people who have allegedly retained their jobs in violation of the policy are female, however, it cannot be argued that the city has applied the policy unevenly so as to disadvantage women. Cf. Yick Wo v. Hopkins, 118 U.S. 356, 359, 6 S.Ct. 1064, 1066, 30 L.Ed. 220 (1886) (finding that a city board of supervisors violated the Equal Protection Clause when it administered a facially-neutral city ordinance so as to deny certain business permits to all Chinese-American petitioners while granting similar permits to all but one Caucasian petitioner). 31 As the Court previously has observed, the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees equal laws, not equal results. Feeney, 442 U.S. at 273, 99 S.Ct. at 2293. Parks has offered to demonstrate that more women than men will be transferred or fired as a result of Warner Robins' anti-nepotism policy. Such an allegation falls short of the showing of discriminatory purpose or intent necessary to support a disparate impact claim under the Equal Protection Clause. Therefore, we hold that the policy does not deny women equal protection of the laws as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.