Court Delivers Jobs Setback to Rights Advocates : Justices Uphold Reverse Discrimination Challenge by White Firefighters

The Supreme Court, in a major setback for affirmative action, today expanded the ability of white men to challenge court-approved plans giving preferential treatment to minorities and women in government jobs.

By a 5-4 vote, the justices handed civil rights advocates their latest defeat in the case of white Birmingham, Ala., firefighters who say they are victims of reverse discrimination.

The justices said an affirmative action plan agreed to by public officials and approved in court may be attacked even years later in a new suit by workers who took no part in the case leading to the original agreement.

Today’s ruling marks the third time this year a newly solidified high court conservative majority has dealt a significant blow to efforts aimed at helping minorities and women overcome bias.

The court in January ruled that state and local governments generally may not impose racial quotas for public works projects. On June 5, the justices erected new barriers for minorities seeking to prove with statistics that they are relegated to lower paying, less desirable jobs.

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, writing for the court, dismissed arguments that the ruling threatens voluntary settlement of minority employment discrimination claims.

“A voluntary settlement in the form of a (court) consent decree between one group of employees and their employer cannot possibly settle, voluntarily or otherwise, the conflicting claims of another group of employees who do not join in the agreement,” he said.

“A judgment or decree among parties to a lawsuit resolves issues as among them, but it does not conclude the rights of strangers to those proceedings,” he said.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice John Paul Stevens said the ruling could have serious consequences for affirmative action plans agreed to by employers.

The decision “would subject large employers who seek to comply with the law by remedying past discrimination to a never-ending stream of litigation and potential liability,” Stevens said.

He said the ruling threatens to undo efforts by Birmingham which “has made a substantial step toward the eradication of the long history of pervasive racial discrimination that has plagued its fire department.”

Stevens was joined by Justices William J. Brennan, Harry A. Blackmun and Thurgood Marshall.

Joining Rehnquist were Justices Byron R. White, Sandra Day O’Connor, Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy.