P.M. BRIEFING : USX Wants Review of Bias Ruling

USX Corp. plans to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to review an appeals court’s ruling that the company discriminated against 8,000 black job applicants at a steel mill, a spokesman said today.

The appeals court last week upheld a 1983 U.S. District Court decision for the second time. The Supreme Court last year ordered the appeals court to restudy the case under more stringent standards for proving bias that the high court imposed June 5.

USX spokesman Ernie Glenn said the company will seek a review of the U.S. 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruling on the ground that the appeals court misapplied the Supreme Court’s new interpretation of civil rights law.

The June 5 decision said minorities could not rely solely on statistics to prove discrimination but must link the data to a specific corporate employment policy.

The decision also let companies justify practices that statistically appear discriminatory by showing they followed a reasonable employment policy.