Race-Based Layoff System Challenged

A layoff system favoring black teachers over whites in Jackson, Mich., is necessary to remedy past discrimination against minorities, the Supreme Court was told today as it began its review of affirmative action.

Jerome Susskind, an attorney representing the Jackson Board of Education, told the justices during oral arguments that the contract clause giving black public school teachers special protection during layoffs was constitutional.

“We had just dismantled a segregated system . . . and to protect the gains made we had to have” the contract clause, he said.

But K. Preston Oade, representing a group of white teachers who were laid off, said there had not been an actual finding of discrimination against minorities so the race-based layoff system had “no remedial character.”

“This is an explicit use of race imposed and sponsored by the state . . . and as such must be justified by the state, and that justification must be most compelling,” he said.

Susskind told the court there was no legal finding of discrimination against the Jackson district because the district had voluntarily desegregated its system without being sued. He said integration was the compelling reason for the layoff system.

“If not protect the minorities during layoffs, why hire them?” he asked.

The case is part of a major affirmative action review undertaken by the court this term. The court also has accepted cases from New York and Cleveland dealing with affirmative action plans.

The Justice Department has urged the court to overturn the plans, arguing they discriminate against whites by giving minorities preferential treatment in hiring, promotions and layoffs.