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The Battalion
WORLD & NATION
7
Tuesday, June 6,1989
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Supreme Court increases difficulty
of proving racial bias in workplace
Pepper buried in city
where his career began
WASHINGTON (AF) — A sharply divided
Supreme Court erected significant new barriers
Monday for workers who try to prove with statis-
lical evidence that they are victims of racial bias.
The 5-4 decision prompted bitter remarks
from the dissenting justices who said the nation’s
highest court may be turning its back on Ameri
ca’s history of racial discrimination.
“One wonders whether the (court) majority
still believes that race discrimination — or, more
accurately, race discrimination against non-
whites — is a problem in our society, or even re
members that it ever was,” said Justice Harry A.
Blackmun in a dissenting opinion.
Justice John Paul Stevens, in a separate dis
sent, said the court is “turning a blind eye” to the
Civil Rights Act of 1964 and its principles ban
ning on-the-job discrimination.
“The changes the majority makes today, tip
ping the scales in favor of employers, are not
faithful to those principles,” Stevens said.
The court overturned a ruling that favored
Filipinos, Alaska natives and Asians employed at
Alaska salmon canneries.
The justices ordered further hearings with
guidelines that will make it far more difficult for
the minority groups to win their lawsuit.
Justice Byron R. White, writing for the court,
said that when minorities use statistics to show
they are bias victims, employers only must pro
duce evidence that there is a legitimate reason
for apparently neutral business practices.
The burden of proving the practices are non-
discriminatory — of persuading a jury there is no
bias — does not shift to the employer, White said.
The worker “bears the burden of disproving
an employer’s assertion that the adverse employ-
V^ne wonders whether the
(court) majority still believes that
race discrimination — or, more
accurately, race discrimination
against non-whites — is a problem in
our society, or even remembers that
it ever was.”
— Justice Harry A.BIackmun,
U.S. Supreme Court
ment action or practice was based solely on a le
gitimate neutral consideration,” he said.
He added that the workers must suggest alter
native practices that do not have an unfair impact
on minorities, but said employers cannot be
forced to adopt the alternatives if they are more
costly.
The court also limited the statistical evidence
that minorities can use to prove discrimination.
He said the minority groups must show that
any under-representation in skilled jobs is tied
directly to specific business practices under at
tack.
White said that without such protection for
employers their only recourse to eliminate racial
imbalance in their work forces would be unlawful
quotas.
The job-bias case involves discrimination
charges against Wards Cove Packing Co. Inc. of
Seattle, Wash., and Castle & Cooke Inc of Asto
ria, Ore.
Stevens said the racial stratification at the com
panies’ canneries in remote areas of Alaska dur
ing the summer salmon run resembled a “planta
tion economy.”
The racial minorities said that while they hold
nearly half the jobs at the canneries, whites hold
almost all the higher-paying positions such as
machinists, carpenters and administrators.
Separate housing and eating places are main
tained for the minorities.
The cannery companies said there are legiti
mate business reasons for the racial divisions.
White agreed that the proper comparison is
between the racial composition of the skilled jobs
and the racial composition of the qualified pop
ulation in the relevant labor market.
White was joined by Chief Justice William H.
Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O’Connor,
Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) —
U.S. Rep. Claude Pepper, the be
loved champion of the nation’s el
derly, was buried Monday in this
city w'here he began his political
career 60 years ago.
“Claude Pepper never forgot
his duty as an elected official to
fight for the common welfare,”
Senate Majority Leader George
Mitchell, D-Maine, told about
1,000 mourners at First Baptist
Church in the state capital.
“His energy and his vision will
be sorely missed as the Congress
now moves to take up Claude
Pepper’s last testament — legis
lation to provide long-term care
for America’s elderly,” Mitchell
said.
Pepper, known nationally as a
fighter for the elderly and the
poor during his 41 years in the
Senate and the House of Rep
resentatives, died a week ago in
Washington of stomach cancer.
He was 88.
Members of Congress and top
Florida officials were among
those attending Monday’s service
just two blocks from the old Flor
ida Capitol, where Pepper began
his career of public service in
1929 as a member of the state
House.
“He instinctively reached out
to the underdog,” said former
Gov. Reubin Askew. “He was al
ways willing to stand, many times
when there weren’t many people
willing to stand up for other peo
ple.”
Pepper was buried next to his
wife, Mildred, in a family plot at
Oakland Cemetery in Tallahas
see. The epitaph he requested
was brief and poignant: “He
loved God and the people and
sought to serve both.”
Frank Pepper, the congress
man’s 71-year-old brother,
thanked the governor. “I didn’t
know a heart could be so full of
gratitude,” Pepper said.
On Sunday, Pepper lay in state
in the rotunda of the Capitol af
ter a memorial service earlier in
the day in Miami.
Pepper, elected to the U.S.
Senate in 1936, served there 14
years until he lost a bitter primary
race during which he was dubbed
“Red” Pepper because of liberal
views and alleged “softness” on
Stalinist Russia.
Court: Topeka schools haven’t complied with Brown decision
DENVER (AP) — The school board in
Topeka, Kan., has failed to carry out fully
the mandate of the landmark 1954 Brown
vs. Topeka Board of Education desegrega
tion ruling, a federal appeals court ruled in
keeping the case open.
In an opinion published Friday but not
made available until Monday, the 10th U.S.
Circuit Court of Appeals reversed an Octo
ber 1986 ruling that could have closed the
case that paved the way for nationwide
school desegregation.
“We are convinced that Topeka has not
sufficiently countered the effects of both
the momentum of its pre-Brown segrega
tion and its subsequent segregative acts in
the 1960s,” the appeals court said. The
panel also reversed a lower court ruling
that the Topeka school district had not vio
lated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
1964.
“We won,” said Rich Jones, an attorney
for the group of parents of 17 children that
reopened the Brown case in 1979. “We feel
vindicated by the decision.”
Included in the group was Linda Brown
Buckner, whose maiden name provided the
title for the landmark 1954 ruling.
The court noted that neither the Topeka
school district nor the Topeka community
are actively resisting desegregation and
cited the national recognition of the dis-
We are convinced that the
defendants (the Topeka school
board) failed to meet their
burden of proving that the
effects of this past intentional
discrimination have been
dissipated.”
— Appeals Court
trict’s innovative curriculum.
“This active engagement has largely been
directed at concerns other than desegrega
tion, however,” the appeals court said, add
ing that “for the most part, the Topeka
school district has exercised a form of be
nign neglect.
“The duty imposed by the Constitution,
and articulated in numerous cases by the
highest court in this land, requires more,”
the appeals court said.
The court sent the case back to the Kan
sas U.S. District Court, saying that Judge
Richard Rogers of Topeka erred in requir
ing the plaintiffs to prove intentional dis
criminatory conduct.
“We are convinced that defendants (the
Topeka school board) failed to meet their
burden of proving that the effects of this
past intentional discripiination have been
dissipated,” the court said.
The case springs from the 1954 land
mark U.S. Supreme Court ruling on a class
action lawsuit filed by black Topeka resi
dents against the school district. The law
suit challenged the constitutionality of a
Kansas law authorizing school segregation.
Topeka School Board Chairman Curtis
Hartenberger said the board’s attorneys
were reviewing the decision.
“I have been told the findings relate pri
marily to student, faculty and staff assign
ment.
THE BATTALION
Would like to congratulate the 1989
Texas A&M Baseball Team.
Thanks for a great season! You’re still #1 with us!
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Front Row (L-R): Mike Carroll (Trainer), Ronnie Allen, Andy Duke. Tim Holt, Chuck Knoblauch, Kirk Thompson, John Byington, Terry Taylor, John Wood,
Chris Noorsdy.
2nd Row (L-R): Mike Ricke (Baseball Trainer), David Weir (Trainer), Scott Daniels, Randy Pryor, Jeff Jones, Anthony DeLaCruz, Keith Langston,
Jason Mai shall, Travis Williams, Steve Hughes, Dewayne Grimes (Manager). Donovan Triplett (Manager).
3id Row (L-R): Bill Hickev (Asst. Coach), Mark Johnson (Head Coach), Trey Witte, Mike Easley, Deron Dacus, Chris Finley, Blake Pyle, Brent Gilbert,
Jeff Bernet, Eric Albright. Steve Smith (Grad. Asst. Coach), Jim Lawler (Pitching Coach).
Top Row (L-R): Jeff Johnson, Matthew Langford, Pat Sweet, Sean Lawrence, Rod Huffman, Scott Centala, Kerry Freudenberg, Tim Herrmann, Jim Neumann,
Steve Johnigan (Grad. Asst. Coach), John Wuycheck.