Court Opinion

ID: 6927205
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-07-23 23:28:01.616214+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:06:58.323519
License: Public Domain

WELLFORD, Senior Circuit Judge,
concurring.
I concur with' Judge Kennedy’s analysis of the standing issue (and the general background discussion) set out in part I and part IIA, and with respect to Guy Tucker’s standing set out in part IIB. I believe, however, that Joseph Hilleary may have suffered an actual injury to his interest in August of 1991. The consent decree affected hiring decisions from the same lists in. March of 1991, as well as in the ensuing August. The parties did not discuss the effect on this particular factual circumstance upon Hilleary in their briefs, but I believe the cumulative application of the quota mandate adversely impacted upon him.
Because the consent decree required three females to be hired in March and two in August, five females were' elevated above Hilleary. Hilleary was ranked forty-fourth on the August certification list, but he would have been ranked thirty-ninth had the females not been advanced. Pursuant to the Rule of Three, when the decision was to be made for the thirty-eighth spot, Hilleary *414would have at least been considered for employment in the August, 1991 class. Under Bakke, this denial under the consent decree likely brought about injury to Hilleary given the following two assumptions. Regents of the Univ. of Cal. v. Bakke, 438 U.S. 265, 281 n. 14, 98 S.Ct. 2733, 2743, n. 14, 57 L.Ed.2d 750 (1978) (majority opinion).
I assume first that the City of Columbus would have chosen thirty-eight firefighters in August of 1991 without the challenge to the consent decree. To suppose otherwise would permit the City to moot the claims of Tudor and Meyer by hiring them, and at the same time enjoy the benefits of the contrary assumption that the City would have hired fewer firefighters had it not taken this defensive action. The fact is that the City did hire thirty-eight firefighters in August.
Second, I assume that, absent the consent decree, Hilleary would have attained number thirty-nine on the hiring list in August of 1991. Without the consent decree, three men hired in front of Hilleary in August would presumably have been hired in March. Then in August, two more males (instead of two females) would have been hired. This effectively would have moved Hilleary from position forty-four to thirty-nine absent the consent decree. Thus, I disagree with the majority conclusion in part IIB that “the consent decree did not adversely affect Hil-leary’s selection to the August 1991 training class.”
I also concur with the majority’s analysis in part IIC of the opinion. As to part IID, since I cannot be sure that all firefighters, regardless of rank number or rating, who are hired on the same day or in the same class, do not have the same seniority status, I cannot join in the majority’s part IID discussion. If, in fact, the firefighters hired at the same time from the same class are given different seniority rankings, then I could join the majority’s part IID, but that would be supposition on my part. I assume, in the absence of evidence to the contrary, that every member of the same class has the same date of appointment and the same seniority.
Regardless of the consent decree, Tudor’s seniority rights, for example, would be inferi- or to thirty-six firefighters (the number of firefighters hired in March) and equal to thirty-eight (the number hired in August). Under the consent decree, three of the thirty-six are women rather than men, and two of the thirty-eight are women rather than men. Tudor does not suffer an injury because he must compete with women rather than with men. He does not suffer an injury merely because less qualified persons enjoy equal or similar seniority rights.
I concur with the majority also in parts III, IV and V of the decision. Therefore, I agree with the majority that we must set aside the consent decree, and would affirm the district court order adjusting seniority. Finally, I concur with the majority decision to reverse the, order validating rank-order hiring, and to remand in that respect for the reasons stated.