A city fire department has a voluntary affirmative action program. It is not dis

Question

A city fire department has a voluntary affirmative action program. It is not disputed that the department had previously discriminated against women and that only 1 percent of fire department employees were female at the time the plan was adopted in 1984. The plan established a long-term goal of 46 percent female utilization based on the proportion of women in the population (52 percent) but reduced by a third to account for the fact that many women would not have the interest or ability to be firefighters. By 1997, 11.6 percent of firefighters were women. The applicant pool that year was 22 percent female, and 27 percent of the persons hired were female. The department gives preferences to women in hiring by allowing all women who pass the written test to be included in the applicant pool (for males, there is a lottery because of the large number of applicants) and by treating female gender as a plus in making final hiring decisoins. A group of males, unsucssesful in obtaining jobs as firefighters, sued. What should the court decide? Why?

Explanation / Answer

The action city fire department is valid because. The affirmative plan is implemented by an authorized governmental authority after a competent finding of past discrimination that presently affected the targeted work force, contain goals that do not unreasonably exceed the minority balance that would have been achieved absent past discrimination, operate to benefit only qualified applicants, are narrowly tailored and do not unnecessarily trammel the interests of males. Goals and targets are acceptable under the constitution as long as they are reasonably related to the legitimate state goal of achieving equality of employment opportunity. In fleshing out the "reasonableness" requirement three factors should be taken into account: (1) whether the remedial relief is temporary "and will terminate when manifest [racial] imbalances have been eliminated;" (2) whether the relief establishes "an absolute bar to the advancement of white[s];" and (3) whether the relief will benefit only "qualified" persons. The city is following all the three norms in voluntary affirmative action program

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