Court Opinion

ID: 9426320
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:17:33.519972+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:23:00.220595
License: Public Domain

Mb. Justice Powell,
with whom Mb. Justice Rehnquist joins, concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I agree that this controversy is not moot, and that in the context of a duly certified class action the “capable of repetition, yet evading review” criterion discussed last Term in Sosna v. Iowa, 419 U. S. 393 (1975), is only a factor in our discretionary decision whether to reach the merits of an issue, rather than an Art. Ill “ease or controversy” requirement. I therefore concur in Part I of the Court’s opinion.
I also agree with Part II of the opinion insofar as it determines the “thrust” of § 703 (h) of Title VII to be the insulation of an otherwise bona fide seniority system from a challenge that it amounts to a discriminatory practice because it perpetuates the effects of pre-Act discrimination. Ante, at 761. Therefore, I concur in the precise holding of Part II, which is that the Court of Appeals erred in interpreting § 703 (h) as a bar, in *782every instance, to the award of retroactive seniority relief to persons discriminatorily refused employment after the effective date of Title VII. Ante, at 762.
Although I am in accord with much of the Court’s discussion in Parts III and IV, I cannot accept as correct its basic interpretation of § 706 (g) as virtually requiring a district court, in determining appropriate equitable relief in a case of this kind, to ignore entirely the equities that may exist in favor of innocent employees. Its holding recognizes no meaningful distinction, in terms of the equitable relief to be granted, between “benefit”-type seniority and “competitive”-type seniority.1 The Court reaches this result by taking an absolutist view of the “make whole” objective of Title VII, while rendering largely meaningless the discretionary authority vested in district courts by § 706 (g) to weigh the equities of the situation. Accordingly, I dissent from Parts III and IV.
I
My starting point, as it is for the Court, is the decision last Term in Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S. 405 (1975). One of the issues there was the standards a federal district court should follow in determining whether victims of a discriminatory employment practice should be awarded backpay. The Court began with *783an observation about the nature of backpay awards and other relief under § 706 (g), the basic remedial section of Title VII:
“It is true that backpay is not an automatic or mandatory remedy; like all other remedies under the Act, it is one which the courts 'may’ invoke. The scheme implicitly recognizes that there may be cases calling for one remedy but not another, and — owing to the structure of the federal judiciary — these choices are, of course, left in the first instance to the district courts.” 422 U. S., at 415-416.
Backpay is the only remedy accompanying reinstatement that is mentioned specifically in Title VII. Moreover, as noted below, backpay is a remedy central to achieving the purposes of the Act. The Court in Albe-marle, recognizing that equitable discretion under § 706 (g) should not be left “unfettered by meaningful standards or shielded from thorough appellate review,” 422 U. S., at 416, required of district courts the “principled application of standards [in determining backpay awards] consistent with [congressional] purposes,” id., at 417. It identified two distinct congressional purposes implicit in Title VII. The “primary objective” was “prophylactic”: “ 'to achieve equality of employment opportunities and remove barriers that have operated in the past to favor an identifiable group of white employees over other employees.’ ” Ibid., quoting Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, 429-430 (1971). The second purpose was “to make persons whole for injuries suffered on account of unlawful employment discrimination.” 422 U. S., at 418. Because backpay served both objectives,2 *784the. Court concluded that “given a finding of unlawful discrimination, backpay should be denied only for reasons which, if applied generally, would not frustrate the central statutory purposes of eradicating discrimination throughout the economy and making persons whole for injuries suffered through past discrimination.” Id., at 421.
The Court today', relying upon Albemarle’s holding as to the “make whole” purpose of Title VII, reasons that adequate relief for a victim of discrimination ordinarily will require “slotting the victim in that position in the seniority system that would have been his had he been hired at the time of his application.” Ante, at 765-766. Accordingly, the Court concludes that complete retroactive seniority should be treated like backpay and denied by a district court only for reasons which, applied generally, could not “frustrate” the congressional intent. Ante, at 771. Although the Court recognizes important differences between benefit-type seniority and competitive-type seniority, it expressly includes both in its conclusion that seniority relief presumptively should be available.3 For the reasons that follow, I think the *785Court’s holding cannot be reconciled with § 706 (g) or with fundamental fairness.
II
When a district court orders an award of backpay or retroactive seniority, it exercises equity powers expressly conferred upon it by Congress. The operative language of § 706 (g) states that upon a finding of an unlawful employment practice the district court may enjoin the practice and, further, may
“order such affirmative action as may be appropriate, which may include, but is not limited to, reinstatement or hiring of employees, with or without back pay (payable by the employer, employment agency, or labor organization, as the case may be, responsible for the unlawful employment practice), or any other equitable relief as the court deems appropriate.” 42 U. S. C. 2000e-5 (g) (1970 ed., Supp. IV).
The last phrase speaking to “other equitable relief” was added by a 1972 amendment, Pub. L. No. 92-261, 86 Stat. 103. As noted in Albemarle, supra, at 420-421, and again by the Court today, ante, at 764, a Section-by-Section Analysis accompanying the Conference Report on that amendment stated that it was Congress’ intention in § 706 (g) “to give the courts wide discretion exercising their equitable powers to fashion the most complete relief possible.” 118 Cong. Rec. 7168 (1972).
The expansive language of § 706 (g) and the 1972 legislative history support a general directive to district courts to grant “make whole” relief liberally and not refuse it arbitrarily. There is nothing in either of those sources, however, to suggest that rectifying economic losses from past wrongs requires the district courts to disregard normal equitable considerations. Indeed, such *786a requirement is belied by the language of the statute itself, which speaks of “such affirmative action as may be appropriate” and such “equitable relief as the court deems appropriate.” The Section-by-Section Analysis similarly recognized that in fashioning “the most complete relief possible” the court still is to exercise “equitable powers.” But in holding that a district court in the usual case should order full retroactive seniority as a remedy for a discriminatory refusal to hire without regard to the effect upon innocent employees hired in the interim, the Court to a significant extent strips the district courts of the equity powers vested in them by Congress.
Ill
A
In Albemarle Paper the Court read Title VII as creating a presumption in favor of backpay. Rather than limiting the power of district courts to do equity, the presumption insures that complete equity normally will be accomplished. Backpay forces the employer4 to account for economic benefits that he wrongfully has denied the victim of discrimination. The statutory purposes and equitable principles converge, for requiring payment of wrongfully withheld wages deters further wrongdoing at the same time that their restitution to the victim helps make him whole.
Similarly, to the extent that the Court today finds a like presumption in favor of granting benefit-type seniority, it is recognizing that normally this relief also will be equitable. As the Court notes, ante, at 773 n. 33, this type of seniority, which determines pension rights, length of vacations, size of insurance coverage and unemploy*787ment benefits, and the like, is analogous to backpay in that its retroactive grant serves “the mutually reinforcing effect of the dual purposes of Title VII,” ante, at 767 n. 27. Benefit-type seniority, like backpay, serves to work complete equity by penalizing the wrongdoer economically at the same time that it tends to make whole the one who was wronged.
But the Court fails to recognize that a retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority invokes wholly different considerations. This is the type of seniority that determines an employee's preferential rights to various economic advantages at the expense of other employees. These normally include the order of layoff and recall of employees, job and trip assignments, and consideration for promotion.
It is true, of course, that the retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority does go a step further in “making whole” the discrimination victim, and therefore arguably furthers one of the objectives of Title VII. But apart from extending the make-whole concept to its outer limits, there is no similarity between this drastic relief and the granting of backpay and benefit-type seniority. First, a retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority usually does not directly affect the employer at all. It causes only a rearrangement of employees along the seniority ladder without any resulting increase in cost.5 *788Thus, Title VII’s “primary objective” of eradicating discrimination is not served at all,6 for the employer is not deterred from the practice.
The second, and in my view controlling, distinction between these types of relief is the impact on other workers. As noted above, the granting of backpay and of benefit-type seniority furthers the prophylactic and make-whole objectives of the statute without penalizing other workers. But competitive seniority benefits, as the term implies, directly implicate the rights and expectations of perfectly innocent employees.7 The eco*789nomic benefits awarded discrimination victims would be derived not at the expense of the employer but at the expense of other workers. Putting it differently, those disadvantaged — sometimes to the extent of losing their jobs entirely — are not the wrongdoers who have no claim to the Chancellor’s conscience, but rather are innocent third parties.
As noted above in Part II, Congress in § 706 (g) expressly referred to "appropriate” affirmative action and “other equitable relief as the court deems appropriate.” And the 1972 Section-by-Section Analysis still recognized that the touchstone of any relief is equity. Congress could not have been more explicit in leaving the relief to the equitable discretion of the court, to be determined in light of all relevant facts and circumstances. Congress did underscore “backpay” by specific reference in § 706 (g), but no mention is made of the granting of other benefits upon ordering reinstatement or hiring. The entire question of retroactive seniority was thus deliberately left to the discretion of the district court, a discretion to be exercised in accordance with equitable principles.
“The essence of equity jurisdiction has been the power of the Chancellor to do equity and to mould each decree to the necessities of the particular case. Flexibility rather than rigidity has distinguished it. The qualities of mercy and practicality have made equity the instrument for nice adjustment and reconciliation between the public interest and private needs as well as between competing private claims.” Hecht Co. v. Bowles, 321 U. S. 321, 329-330 (1944).
*790“Moreover, . . . equitable remedies are a special blend of what is necessary, what is fair, and what is workable. . . Lemon v. Kurtzman., 411 U. S. 192, 200 (1973) (opinion of Burger, C. J.).
“In equity, as nowhere else, courts eschew rigid absolutes and look to the practical realities and necessities inescapably involved in reconciling competing interests ...Id., at 201.
The decision whether to grant competitive-type seniority relief therefore requires a district court to consider and weigh competing equities. In any proper exercise of the balancing process, a court must consider both the claims of the discrimination victims and the claims of incumbent employees who, if competitive seniority rights are awarded retroactively to others, will lose economic advantages earned through satisfactory and often long service.8 If, as the Court today holds, the district court may not weigh these equities much of the language of § 706 (g) is rendered meaningless. We cannot assume that Congress intended either that the statutory lan*791guage be ignored or that the earned benefits of incumbent employees be wiped out by a presumption created by this Court.9
B
The Court’s concern to effectuate an absolutist conception of “make whole” should be tempered by a recognition that a retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority touches upon other congressional concerns expressed in Title VII. Two sections of the Act, although not speaking directly to the issue, indicate that this remedy, unlike backpay and benefit-type seniority, should not be granted automatically.
The first section, § 703 (h), has been discussed in the Court’s opinion. As there noted, the “thrust” of that section is the validation of seniority plans in existence on the effective date of Title VII. The congressional debates leading to the introduction of § 703 (h) indicate a concern that Title VII not be construed as requiring immediate and total restitution to the victims of discrimination regardless of cost in terms of other workers’ legitimate expectations. Section 703 (h) does not restrict the remedial powers of a district court once a dis*792criminatory practice has been found, but neither are the concerns expressed therein irrelevant to a court’s determination of “appropriate” equitable relief under § 706 (g). Although the Court of Appeals read far too much into § 703 (h), it properly recognized that the section does reflect congressional concern for existing rights under a “bona fide seniority or merit system.”
Also relevant is § 703 (j), which prohibits any interpretation of Title VII that would require an employer to grant “preferential treatment” to any individual because his race is underrepresented in the employer’s work force in comparison with the community or the available work force.10 A grant of competitive seniority to an identifiable victim of discrimination is not the kind of preferential treatment forbidden by § 703 (j) but, as counsel for the Steelworkers admitted at oral argument, it certainly would be “preferential treatment.” 11 It constitutes a preference in the sense that the victim of *793discrimination henceforth will outrank, in the seniority system, the incumbents hired after the discrimination. Moreover, this is a preference based on a fiction, for the discrimination victim is placed ahead of others not because of time actually spent on the job but “as if” he had worked since he was denied employment. This also requires an assumption that nothing would have interrupted his employment, and that his performance would have justified a progression up the seniority ladder.12 The incumbents, who in fact were on the job during the interim and performing satisfactorily, would be seriously disadvantaged. The congressional bar to one type of preferential treatment in §703 (j) should at least give the Court pause before it imposes upon district courts a duty to grant relief that creates another type of preference.
IV
In expressing the foregoing views, I suggest neither that Congress intended to bar a retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority in all cases,13 nor that district *794courts should indulge a presumption against such relief.14 My point instead is that we are dealing with a congressional mandate to district courts to determine and apply equitable remedies. Traditionally this is a balancing process left, within appropriate constitutional or statutory limits, to the sound discretion of the trial court. At this time it is necessary only to avoid imposing, from the level of this Court, arbitrary limitations on the exercise of this traditional discretion specifically explicated in § 706 (g). There will be cases where, under all of the circumstances, the economic penalties that would be imposed on innocent incumbent employees will outweigh the claims of discrimination victims to be made entirely whole even at the expense of others. Similarly, there will be cases where the balance properly is struck the other way.
The Court virtually ignores the only previous judicial discussion directly in point. The Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, recently faced with the issue of retro*795active seniority for victims of hiring discrimination, showed a fine appreciation of the distinction discussed above. Meadows v. Ford Motor Co., 510 F. 2d 939 (1975), cert. pending, No. 74-1349.15 That court began with the recognition that retroactive competitive-type seniority presents “greater problems” than a grant of backpay because the burden falls upon innocent incumbents rather than the wrongdoing employer. Id., at 949.16 Thg court further recognized that Title VII contains no prohibition against such relief. Then, noting that “the remedy for the wrong of discriminatory refusal to hire lies in the first instance with the District Judge,” ibid, (emphasis added), the Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit stated:
“For his guidance on this issue we observe . . . that a grant of retroactive seniority would not depend solely upon the existence of a record sufficient to justify back pay .... The court would, in dealing with job [i. e., competitive-type] seniority, need also to consider the interests of the workers who might be displaced .... We do not assume . . . that such reconciliation is impossible, but as is obvious, we certainly do foresee genuine difficulties. . . .” Ibid.
The Sixth Circuit suggested that the District Court seek *796enlightenment on the questions involved in the particular fact situation, and that it should allow intervention by representatives of the incumbents who stood to be disadvantaged.17
In attempted justification of its disregard of the explicit equitable mandate of § 706 (g) the Court today relies almost exclusively on the practice of the National Labor Relations Board under § 10 (c) of the National Labor Relations Act, 29 U. S. C. § 160 (c).18 It is true *797that in the two instances cited by the Court, and in the few others cited in the briefs of the parties,19 the Board has ordered reinstatement of victims of discrimination “without prejudice to their seniority or other rights and privileges.” But the alleged precedents are doubly unconvincing. First, in none of the cases is there a discussion of equities either by the Board or the enforcing court. That the Board has granted seniority relief in several cases may indicate nothing more than the fact that in the usual case no one speaks for the individual incumbents. This is the point recognized by the court in Meadows, and the impetus for its suggestion that a representative of their interests be entertained by the district court before it determines “appropriate” § 706 (g) relief.
I also suggest, with all respect, that the Court’s appeal to Board practice wholly misconceives the lesson to be *798drawn from it. In the seminal case recognizing the Board’s power to order reinstatement for discriminatory refusals to hire, this Court in a reasoned opinion by Mr. Justice Frankfurter was careful to emphasize that the decision on the type and extent of relief rested in the Board’s discretion, subject to limited review only by.the courts.
“But in the nature of things Congress could not cata-logue all the devices and stratagems for circumventing the policies of the Act. Nor could it define the whole gamut of remedies to effectuate these policies in an infinite variety of specific situations. Congress met these difficulties by leaving the adaptation of means to end to the empiric process of administration. The exercise of the process was committed to the Board, subject to limited judicial review. . . .
“... All these and other factors outside our domain of experience may come into play. Their relevance is for the Board, not for us. In the exercise of its informed discretion the Board may find that effectuation of the Act’s 'policies may or may not require reinstatement. We have no warrant for speculating on matters of fact the determination of which Congress has entrusted to the Board. All we are entitled to ask is that the statute speak through the Board where the statute does not speak for itself.” Phelps Dodge Corp. v. NLRB, 313 U. S. 177, 194-196 (1941) (emphasis added).
The fallacy of the Court’s reliance upon Board practice is apparent: the district courts under Title VII stand in the place of the Board under the NLRA. Congress entrusted to their discretion the appropriate remedies for violations of the Act, just as it previously had entrusted discretion to the Board. The Court today denies that *799discretion to the district courts, when 35 years ago it was quite careful to leave discretion where Congress had entrusted it. It may be that the district courts, after weighing the competing equities, would order full retroactive seniority in most cases. But they should do so only after determining in each instance that it is appropriate, and not because this Court has taken from them the power — granted by Congress — to weigh the equities.
In summary, the decision today denying district courts the power to balance equities cannot be reconciled with the explicit mandate of § 706 (g) to determine “appropriate” relief through the exercise of “equitable powers.” Accordingly, I would remand this case to the District Court with instructions to investigate and weigh competing equities before deciding upon the appropriateness of retroactive competitive-type seniority with respect to individual claimants.20

 My terminology conforms to that of the Court, ante, at 766. “Benefit”-type seniority refers to the use of a worker’s earned seniority credits in computing his level of economic “fringe benefits.” Examples of such benefits are pensions, paid vacation time, and unemployment insurance. “Competitive”-type seniority refers to the use of those same earned credits in determining his right, relative to other workers, to job-related “rights” that cannot be supplied equally to any two employees. Examples can range from the worker’s right to keep his job while someone else is laid off, to his right to a place in the punch-out line ahead of another employee at the end of a workday.

 As to the prophylactic purpose, the Court stated:
“It is the reasonably certain prospect of a backpay award that ‘provide[s] the spur or catalyst which causes employers and unions *784to self-examine and to self-evaluate their employment practices and to endeavor to eliminate, so far as possible, the last vestiges of an unfortunate and ignominious page in this country’s history.’ ” 422 TJ. S., at 417-418 (citations omitted).
Backpay furthers the “make whole” purpose of the statute by replacing some of the economic loss suffered as a result of the employer’s wrongdoing. See id., at 418-420.

 “Discretion is vested ... to allow the most complete achievement of the objectives of Title VII that is attainable under the facts and circumstances of the specific case. . . . Accordingly, the District Court’s denial of any form of seniority remedy must be reviewed in terms of its effect on the attainment of the Act’s objectives under the circumstances presented by this record.” Ante, at 770-771 (emphasis added).

 In an appropriate case, of course, Title VII remedies may be ordered against a wrongdoing union as well as the employer.

 This certainly would be true in this case, as conceded by counsel for Bowman at oral argument. There the following exchange took place:
“QUESTION: How is Bowman injured by this action?
“MR. PATE [Counsel for Bowman]: By seniority? By the grant of this remedy?
“QUESTION: Either way.
“MR. PATE: It is not injured either way and the company, apart from the general interest of all of us in the importance of the question, has no specific, tangible interest in it in this case as *788to whether seniority is granted to this group or not. That is correct.” Tr. of Oral Arg. 42.
In a supplemental memorandum filed after oral argument, petitioners referred to this statement by Bowman’s counsel and suggested that he apparently was referring to the competitive aspects of seniority, such as which employees were to get the best job assignments, since Bowman certainly would be economically disadvantaged by the benefit-type seniority, such as seniority-related increases in backpay. I agree that in the context Bowman’s counsel spoke, he was referring to the company’s lack of a tangible interest in whether or not competitive-type seniority was granted.

 The Court in Albemarle noted that this primary objective had been recognized in Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 .U. S. 424 (1971). See 422 U. S., at 417; see also supra, at 783. In Griggs, the Court found this objective to be “plain from the language of the statute.” 401 U. S., at 429. In creating a presumption in favor of a retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority the Court thus exalts the make-whole purpose, not only above fundamental principles of equity, but also above the primary objective of the statute recently found to be plain on its face.

 Some commentators have suggested that the expectations of incumbents somehow may be illegitimate because they result from past discrimination against others. Cooper & Sobol, Seniority and Testing under Fair Employment Laws: A General Approach to Objective Criteria of Hiring and Promotion, 82 Harv. L. Rev. 1598, 1605-1606 (1969). Such reasoning is badly flawed. Absent some showing of collusion, the incumbent employee was not a party to the discrimination by the employer. Acceptance of the job *789when offered hardly makes one an accessory to a discriminatory failure to hire someone else. Moreover, the incumbent’s expectancy does not result from discrimination against others, but is based on his own efforts and satisfactory performance.

 The Court argues that a retroactive grant of competitive-type seniority always is equitable because it “divides the burden” of past discrimination between incumbents and victims. Ante, at 776-777. Aside from its opacity, this argument is flawed by what seems to be a misperception of the nature of Title VII relief. Specific relief necessarily focuses upon the individual victim, not upon some “class” of victims. A grant of full retroactive seniority to an individual victim of Bowman’s discriminatory hiring practices will place that person exactly where he would have been had he been hired when he first applied. The question for a district court should be whether it is equitable to place that individual in that position despite the impact upon all incumbents hired after the date of his unsuccessful application. Any additional effect upon the entire work force— incumbents and the newly enfranchised victims alike — of similar relief to still earlier victims of the discrimination, raises distinctly different issues from the equity, vis-a-vis incumbents, of granting retroactive seniority to each victim.

 Indeed, the 1972 amendment process which produced the Section-by-Section Analysis containing the statement of the Act’s “make whole” purpose, also resulted in an addition to § 706 (g) itself clearly showing congressional recognition that total restitution to victims of discrimination is not a feasible goal. As originally enacted, §-706 (g) contained simply an authorization to district courts to order reinstatement with or without backpay, with no limitation on how much backpay the courts could order. In 1972, however, the Congress added a limitation restricting the courts to an award to a date two years prior to the filing of a charge with EEOC. While it is true that Congress at the same time rejected an even more restrictive limitation, see Albemarle Paper Co. v. Moody, 422 U. S., at 420 n. 13, its adoption of any limitation at all suggests an awareness that the desire to “make whole” must yield at some point to other considerations.

 Section 703 (j), 78 Stat. 257, 42 U. S. C. § 2000e-2 (j), reads in full as follows:
"(j) Nothing contained in this subchapter shall be interpreted to require any employer, employment agency, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee subject to this subchapter to grant preferential treatment to any individual or to any group because of the race, color, religion, sex, or national origin of such individual or group on account of an imbalance which may exist with respect to the total number or percentage of persons of any race, color, religion, sex, or national origin employed by any employer, referred or classified for employment by any employment agency or labor organization, admitted to membership or classified by any labor organization, or admitted to, or employed in, any apprenticeship or other training program, in comparison with the total number or percentage of persons of such race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in any community, State, section, or other area, or in the available work force in any community, State, section, or other area.”

 Tr. of Oral Arg. 33.

 It is true, of course, that backpay awards and retroactive grants of benefit-type seniority likewise are based on the same fiction and the same assumption. In the case of those remedies, however, no innocent persons are harmed by the use of the fiction, and any uncertainty about whether the victim of discrimination in fact would have retained the job and earned the benefits is properly borne by the wrongdoer.

 Nor is it suggested that incumbents have “indefeasibly vested rights” to their seniority status that invariably would foreclose retroactive seniority. But the cases cited by the Court for that proposition do not hold, or by analogy imply, that district courts operating under § 706 (g) lack equitable discretion to take into account the rights of incumbents. In Tilton v. Missouri Pacific R. Co., 376 U. S. 169 (1964), and Fishgold v. Sullivan Corp., 328 U. S. 275 (1946), the Court only confirmed an express congressional determination, presumably made after weighing all relevant considerations, that for reasons of public policy veterans should receive *794seniority credit for their time in military service. See 376 U. S., at 174-175. In Ford Motor Co. v. Huffman, 345 U. S. 330 (1953), the Court affirmed the authority of a collective-bargaining agent, presumably after weighing the relative equities, see id., at 337-339, to advantage certain employees more than others. All I contend is that under § 706 (g) a district court, like Congress in Tilton and Fishgold, and the bargaining agent in Huffman, also must be free to weigh the equities.

 The Court, ante, at 764 n. 21, suggests I am arguing that retroactive competitive-type seniority should be “less available” as relief than backpay. This is not my position. All relief not specifically prohibited by the Act is equally “available” to the district courts. My point is that equitable considerations can make competitive-type seniority relief less “appropriate” in a particular situation than backpay or other relief. Again, the plain language of § 706 (g) compels careful determination of the “appropriateness” of each “available” remedy in a specific case, and does not permit the inflexible approach taken by the Court.

 From the briefs of the parties it appears that Meadows is one of only three reported appellate decisions dealing with the question of retroactive seniority relief to victims of discriminatory hiring practices. In the instant ease, of course, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit held such relief barred by § 703 (h). In Jurinko v. Edwin L. Wiegand Co., 477 F. 2d 1038, vacated and remanded on other grounds, 414 U. S. 970 (1973), the Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ordered the relief without any discussion of equitable considerations.

 The Sixth Circuit noted that no equitable considerations stand in the way of a district court’s granting retroactive benefit-type seniority. 510 F. 2d, at 949.

 One of the commentators quoted by the Court today has endorsed the evenhanded approach adopted by the Sixth Circuit: “In fashioning a remedy, . . . the courts should consciously assess the costs of relief to all the parties in the case, and then tailor the decree to minimize these costs while affording plaintiffs adequate relief. The best way to do this will no doubt vary from case to case depending on the facts: the number of plaintiffs, the number of [incumbents] affected and the alternatives available to them, the economic circumstances of the industry.” Poplin, Fair Employment in a Depressed Economy: The Layoff Problem, 23 U. C. L. A. L. Rev. 177, 202 (1975) (emphasis in original): see id., at 224. Another commentator has said that judges who fail to take account of equitable claims of incumbents are engaging in an “Alice in Wonderland” approach to the problem of Title VII remedies. See Rains, Title VII v. Seniority Based Layoffs: A Question of Who Goes First, 4 Hofstra L. Rev. 49, 53 (1975).

 By gathering bits and pieces of .the legislative history of the 1972 amendments, the Court attempts to patch together an argument that full retroactive seniority is a remedy equally “available” as backpay. Ante, at 764-765, n. 21. There are two short responses. First, as emphasized elsewhere, supra, at 794 n. 14, no one contends that such relief is less available, but only that it may be less equitable in some situations. Second, insofar as the Court intends the legislative history to suggest some presumption in favor of this relief, it is irrefutably blocked by the plain language of § 706 (g) calling for the exercise of equitable discretion in the fashioning of appropriate relief. There are other responses. As to the committee citations of lower court decisions and the Conference Report Analysis reference to “present case law,” it need only be noted that as of the 1972 amendments no appellate court had considered a *797case involving retroactive seniority relief to victims of discriminatory hiring practices. Moreover, the cases were cited only in the context of a general discussion of the complexities of employment discrimination, never for their adoption of a “rightful place” theory of relief. And by the terms of the Conference Report Analysis itself, the existing case law could not take precedence over the explicit language of §706 (g), added by the amendments, that told courts to exercise equitable discretion in granting appropriate relief.
Moreover, I find no basis for the Court's statement that the Committee Reports indicated “rightful place” to be the objective of Title VII relief. In fact, in both instances cited by the Court the term was used in the context of a general comment that minorities were still "far from reaching their rightful place in society.” S. Rep. No. 92-416, p. 6 (1971). There was no reference to the scope of relief under § 706 (g), or indeed even to Title VII remedies at all.

 The respondent Steelworkers cited seven Board decisions in addition to those mentioned in the Court’s opinion. Brief for Respondent United Steelworkers of America, AFL-CIO, and for American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations as Amicus Curiae, 27 n. 31.

 This is not to suggest that district courts should be left to exercise a standardless, unreviewable discretion. But in the area of competitive-type seniority, unlike backpay and benefit-type seniority, the twin purposes of Title VII do not provide the standards. District courts must be guided in each instance by the mandate of § 706 (g). They should, of course, record the considerations upon which they rely in granting or refusing relief, so that appellate review could be informed and precedents established in the area.
In this case, for example, factors that could be considered on remand and that could weigh in favor of full retroactive seniority, include Bowman’s high employee turnover rate and the asserted fact that few victims of Bowman’s discrimination have indicated a desire to be hired. Other factors, not fully developed in the record, also could require consideration in determining the balance of the equities. I would imply no opinion on the merits and would remand for full consideration in light of the views herein expressed.