Court Opinion

ID: 9425463
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-02 23:14:47.096073+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:22:55.689320
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Douglas,
dissenting.
It is odd that the Court which holds that a State may not bar an alien from the practice of law1 or deny employment to aliens2 can read a federal statute that prohibits discrimination in employment on account of “national origin” so as to permit discrimination against aliens.
Alienage results from one condition only: being born outside the United States. Those born within the country are citizens from birth. It could not be more clear that Far ah’s policy of excluding aliens is de facto a policy of preferring those who were born in this country. Therefore the construction placed upon the “national origin” provision is inconsistent with the construction this Court has placed upon the same Act’s protections for persons denied employment on account of race or sex.
In connection with racial discrimination we have said that the Act prohibits “practices, procedures, or tests neutral on their face, and even neutral in terms of intent,” if they create “artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment when the barriers operate in*97vidiously to discriminate on the basis, of racial or other impermissible classification.” Griggs v. Duke Power Co., 401 U. S. 424, 43-431 (1971) (emphasis added). There we found that the employer could not use test or diploma requirements which on their face were racially neutral, when in fact those requirements had a de facto discriminatory result and the employer was unable to justify them as related to job performance. The tests involved in Griggs did not eliminate all blacks seeking employment, just as the citizenship requirement here does not eliminate all applicants of foreign origin. Respondent here explicitly conceded that the citizenship requirement is imposed without regard to the alien’s qualifications for the job.
These petitioners against whom discrimination is charged are Chicanos. But whether brown, yellow, black, or white, the thrust of the Act is clear: alienage is no barrier to employment here. Griggs, as I understood it until today, extends its protective principles to all, not to blacks alone. Our cases on sex discrimination under the Act yield the same result as Griggs. See Phillips v. Martin Marietta Corp., 400 U. S. 542 (1971).
The construction placed upon the statute in the majority opinion is an extraordinary departure from prior cases, and it is opposed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the agency provided by law with the responsibility of enforcing the Act’s protections. The Commission takes the only permissible position: that discrimination on the basis of alien-age always has the effect of discrimination on the basis of national origin. Refusing to hire an individual because he is an alien “is discrimination- based on birth outside the United States and is thus discrimination based on national origin in violation of Title VII.” Brief *98for Commission as Amicus Curiae 5. The Commission's interpretation of the statute is entitled to great weight.
There is no legislative history to cast doubt on this construction.3 Indeed, any other construction flies in the face of the underlying congressional policy of removing “artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers to employment.” McDonnell Douglas Corp. v. Green, 411 U. S. 792, 806 (1973).
Mrs. Espinoza is a permanent resident alien, married to an American citizen, and her children will be native-born American citizens. But that first generation has the greatest adjustments to make to their new country. Their unfamiliarity with America makes them the most vulnerable to exploitation and discriminatory treatment. They, of course, have the same obligation as American citizens to pay taxes, and they are subject to the draft on the same basis. But they have never received equal treatment in the job market. Writing of the immigrants of the late 1800’s, Oscar Handlin has said:
“For want of alternative, the immigrants took the lowest places in the ranks of industry. They suffered in consequence from the poor pay and miserable working conditions characteristic of the sweat*99shops and the homework in the garment trades and in cigar making. But they were undoubtedly better off than the Irish and Germans of the 1840’s for whom there had been no place at all.” The Newcomers 24 (1959).
The majority decides today that in passing sweeping legislation guaranteeing equal job opportunities, the Congress intended to help only the immigrant’s children, excluding those “for whom there [is] no place at all.” I cannot impute that niggardly an intent to Congress.

 In re Griffiths, 413 U. S. 717 (1973).

 Sugarman v. Dougall, 413 U. S. 634 (1973).

 The only legislative history the majority points to is Congressman Roosevelt’s definition of “national origin”: “It means the country from which you or your forebears came. . . . You may come from Poland, Czechoslovakia, England, France, or any other country.” Ante, at 89. But that only makes clear what petitioners here argue — that Mrs. Espinoza cannot be discriminated against because she comes from a foreign country. The majority’s mention of the deletion of the word “ancestry,” ibid., is certainly irrelevant. Obviously “national origin” comprehends “ancestry,” but as Congressman Roosevelt pointed out it means more — not only where one’s forebears were born, but where one himself was born.