Court Rejects Hearing Plea on ‘Accents’ : Justices: Immigrants may be denied jobs if they are unable to speak English clearly enough.

A recent immigrant who speaks English with a thick accent may be denied employment without violating federal anti-discrimination laws, according to a federal court ruling from California that the Supreme Court let stand today.

The Civil Rights Act of 1964 forbids job discrimination based on an individual’s “national origin,” but the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals said an immigrant’s accent may disqualify him for a job.

If the accent “interferes materially” with the person’s ability to perform a job, an employer may reject him for that reason, the court said.

The case concerned a 66-year-old Filipino-American who sought a clerical job in Honolulu that required him to speak to the public.

The justices, without comment, rejected an appeal from Manuel Fragante, who contended the Honolulu Department of Motor Vehicles discriminated against him by hiring a less-qualified person who has no foreign accent.

Fragante argued that foreign accents are characteristic of a person’s national origin and that he was thus protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964

In another decision today, the Supreme Court left intact a ban on school dances in a Missouri town inhabited largely by Christian fundamentalists.

The court, without comment, rejected arguments that the ban imposed by public school officials is religiously motivated and therefore violates the constitutionally required separation of church and state.

The longtime no-dance rule in rural Purdy, Mo., was upheld by a three-judge panel of the U.S. 8th Circuit Court of Appeals last September. In November, the full appeals court voted 5-4 not to review the panel’s decision. But dissenting judges called the ban “religious tyranny” that violates the rights of students wishing to hold school-sponsored dances.

In other action today, the high court:

* Blocked temporarily the sales of five Hare Krishna temples to satisfy a $5-million judgment against the religious sect.

* Let stand a $310,000 award against Los Angeles County stemming from a county jail inmate’s 1984 suicide.

* Left intact a $931,000 libel award won by former CIA deputy director Max Hugel, who resigned in 1981 amid allegations of improper business dealings.

In the Hare Krishna case, the justices ordered the temple sales postponed until they consider a formal appeal. The Krishnas had filed the request with Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, saying emergency help is needed “to save (their) religion from destruction.”

The International Society of Krishna Consciousness and two Krishna officials were sued successfully by a mother and daughter, Marcia and Robin George of Cypress, Calif.