Court Opinion

ID: 9427608
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:21:19.741741+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:08.377884
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Stevens,
with whom Mr. Justice White joins,
concurring.
While I concur in the Court’s opinion, I confess that I am not at all sure that there is any difference between the two questions posed ante, at 274. If a classification is not overtly based on gender, I am inclined to believe the question whether it is covertly gender based is the same as the question whether its adverse effects reflect invidious gender-based discrimination. However the question is phrased, for me the answer is largely provided by the fact that the number of males disadvantaged by Massachusetts’ veterans’ preference (1,867,000) is sufficiently large — and sufficiently close to the number of disadvantaged females (2,954,000) — to refute the claim that the rule was intended to benefit males as a class over females as a class.