High Court Upholds Affirmative Action : OKs Promotion Plan for Alabama State Troopers

The Supreme Court today upheld an affirmative action plan that promoted one black Alabama state trooper for each white in a decision solidifying minority gains and possibly signaling that the court has made up its mind on the volatile issue.

The justices--on a 5-4 vote and led by Justice William J. Brennan Jr.--rejected the Reagan Administration view that such plans are unconstitutional and continued a pattern of defeat set last term for the Administration’s argument that affirmative action plans discriminate against whites.

“The United States maintains that the race-conscious relief ordered in this case violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States,” Brennan wrote.

“It is now well established that government bodies, including courts, may constitutionally employ racial classifications essential to remedy unlawful treatment of racial or ethnic groups subject to discrimination.”

End of Struggle

The ruling appears to end the court’s struggle with the volatile issue of affirmative action.

It began with its 1978 ruling in Regents of California vs. Bakke, where the majority narrowly invalidated a medical school’s action in setting aside a specific number of slots for minorities.

The issue was further muddled in 1984, when the justices ruled in a case from Memphis, Tenn., that a federal court could not order white firefighters to be laid off before blacks with less seniority.

However, last term, in two opinions written by Brennan, the courts most senior and liberal member, the justices found that affirmative action hiring and promotion plans are acceptable.

Today’s case, and the two last year, make it clear that affirmative action plans, even those setting quotas and timetables, are acceptable in cases where there has been a clear history of racial discrimination.

Court Unwavering

“Basically the court has shown it is not wavering in its support of affirmative action,” said Ronald Ellis, of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People’s Legal Defense and Education Fund. “The Justice Department suggestion that somehow there is still some question that affirmative action is inappropriate has hopefully been put to rest.”

In reaching the decision, Brennan said the plan was justified in order to “eliminate the effects of . . . long-term, open and pervasive discrimination, including the absolute exclusion of blacks from its upper ranks.”

Brennan was joined by Justices Thurgood Marshall, Harry A. Blackmun and Lewis F. Powell Jr. Justice John Paul Stevens concurred in the judgment.

In opposition, Justice Sandra Day O’Connor said the affirmative action plan went too far.

“The one-for-one promotion quota used in this case far exceeded the percentage of blacks in the trooper force, and there is no evidence in the record that such an extreme quota was necessary to eradicate the effects of the department’s delay” in integrating the force, she said.